MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is set to discuss starting on Monday conditions for the possible participation of the national teams from Russia and Belarus at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in the French capital of Paris this summer.
The International Olympic Committee Executive Board convenes for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20.
IOC executives are expected to discuss in particular whether athletes from Russia and Belarus will be able to participate in the official opening and closing ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics.
Last Friday, the IOC press office announced in a statement to TASS that the organization was unlikely to change its conditions for what it would take for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics, but a final decision to be made by the organization on March 19.
According to the statement, "All principles have been set and published on 8 December 2023. They will not be changed. With regard to the implementation of these principles, the IOC EB will take the relevant decisions during its meeting next week."
President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov stated earlier in the year that in order to be allowed into the 2024 Olympics, Russian athletes would be forced to denounce the country’s special military operation.
The December 8, 2023, IOC requirements regarding the neutral-status participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Olympics say nothing about Russia’s special military operation.
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.