MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) will never walk the path of boycotting the Olympic Games, although it views as discriminatory current requirements regarding its national athletes’ participation in the Games, ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov said on Thursday.

"The ROC has never been engaged in boycotting the Olympics and we, as the ROC, will never take the path of a boycott," Pozdnyakov told journalists. "We have always supported the participation of Russian Olympians in these competitions, but only based on non-discriminatory and equitable terms with the rest of the world’s athletes."

On March 13, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said that 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.

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.