MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. Russia should not be isolating itself and should refrain from boycotting the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in France despite the enforcement of restrictions regarding national athletes, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said on Wednesday.
"Everyone is talking these days about the issue of Russia’s potential participation in the upcoming Olympics, and my stance is that we must not be turning our backs, isolating ourselves and boycotting the [Olympic] movement," Matytsin said. "We must preserve the opportunity for dialogue as much as we can and compete in this tournament."
"This concerns those athletes who have already secured the right [to compete] through qualifying competitions - wrestlers, judokas, taekwondo fighters, tennis players, and there will be more to come in other sports disciplines," he continued.
"We will see what the final decision of the International Olympic Committee [IOC] Executive Board will be about, when it convenes for its session on March 18-19, but as of today their position is that there would be no additional recommendations and regulations."
"We are unable to work out general recommendations for all federations, because each international athletic federation exploits its own approach with some of them prohibiting our [Russia’s] participation, while some others allow it but under a neutral status," Matytsin noted.
"As soon as the IOC Executive Board meeting is over, we will come up with the final decision jointly with international sports federations. It is extremely important for athletes and our society to maintain a dialogue and provide our athletes with the opportunity to prove in an honest competition that we represent a great sports power," the Russian sports minister said.
Matytsin noted that the Russian Sports Ministry, all involved sports federations and athletes would make a decision about taking part in the 2024 Summer Games in France only after the IOC makes its final decision on the issue.
"I am not in favor of rushing things up. I hope that the IOC will have enough time to express its stance regarding the regulations and the prospects for the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus at the 2024 Olympics," Matytsin said.
"Only after that, with all the legal information at hand, we should decide jointly with the [international sports] federations and athletes about the Olympics’ participation," he added.
In mid-December 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his combined Direct Line Q&A session and year-end press conference that recommendations regarding admission of Russian athletes to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris must to be thoroughly analyzed and a weighted decision regarding the country’s participation in the Olympics should follow.
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.
On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.
The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.
The suspension means that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.
IOC sanctions against Russia
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
On July 26, 2023, the IOC extended invitations to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris to 203 National Olympic Committees. Russia and Belarus did not receive invitations. The IOC explained later that there was no deadline regarding the issue of Russian and Belarusian athletes’ participation.