Since Russia and its ally, Belarus, wreaked havoc and invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the majority of the sports councils have turned their backs on the two countries. The following month, they declared that an all-out ban against their athletes would immediately be put into place.
But as the months went by, the limitations gradually loosened, and the councils eventually allowed them to compete on the global scene, as long as they complied with their set of rules, which included representing neither Belarus nor Russia and competing as “individual neutral athletes.”
IOC loosens, while World Athletics keeps restrictions
On Friday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) formally announced that the eight athletes from Russia and three from Belarus who had qualified as neutral athletes will be allowed to participate in the Paris Olympics next year
However, following their announcement, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said that the organization will not follow the lead of the IOC and relax sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
Coe acknowledged that while the spectators will witness the participation of ‘neutral athletes’ from the two countries in some of the games at the Paris Olympics, he said that this would not be the case in the track and field events.
Furthermore, Coe said that their position is “fixed” and “settled,” having already been backed by the executive board and unanimously endorsed on “two separate global occasions.”
Coe about the Friendship Games: ‘It doesn’t fit within our values’
Earlier this year, Russia announced that they would be re-launching the ‘Friendship Games’, an international sporting event that was born in 1984 when they boycotted the Olympics.
And touching on this topic, Coe said that ‘they weren’t excited about it’ as it didn’t fit within their values and competition structures. He added that there also wasn’t much room for it in an already complex and complicated calendar.
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