{"id":352686,"date":"2023-12-09T04:41:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T05:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=352686"},"modified":"2023-12-09T10:02:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T10:02:32","slug":"russian-belarusian-athletes-learn-fate-for-paris-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=352686","title":{"rendered":"Russian, Belarusian athletes learn fate for Paris 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Select Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the Olympic Games Paris 2024<\/a>, the International Olympic Committee<\/a> has declared, in a decision that removed the option of a blanket ban because of the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The IOC decision confirmed moves it started one year ago to reintegrate Russia and its military ally Belarus into global sports, and nine months after it urged sports governing bodies to look at ways to let individual athletes compete.<\/p>\n

Though the IOC's official position was expected, the timing surprised some Olympic watchers after reports last week in Paris suggested the long-promised decision would come in March.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/p>\n

It is still up to each sport's governing body, which runs its own Olympic competitions, to assess and enforce neutral status for individual athletes who have not actively supported the war and are not contracted to military or state security agencies.<\/p>\n

The IOC said eight Russians and three from Belarus are among 4,600 athletes worldwide who have so far qualified for the Olympic Games. More than 60 Ukrainian athletes have qualified so far and the IOC estimated the country would ultimately send about 150.<\/p>\n

Russia sent 335 athletes to the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 \u2014 winning 20 golds among 71 total medals \u2014 but only dozens are likely to compete in Paris as individuals.<\/p>\n

Russia remains banned from team sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly a very limited number of athletes will qualify through the existing qualification systems of the [governing bodies],\u201d the IOC said in a statement<\/p>\n

Those who are given neutral status must compete without their national identity of flag, anthem or colours.<\/p>\n

\"ROC<\/p>\n

The International Gymnastics Federation has already mandated light blue uniforms.<\/p>\n

The Russian government and sports officials have often insisted that any restrictions on their athletes are politicised and unacceptable.<\/p>\n

Athletes and officials from Ukraine, including president Volodymyr Zelensky, have repeatedly urged the IOC to expel Russia and Belarus entirely from the Olympic Games because of the war Russia started. Zelensky said in January it was \u201cobvious that any neutral flag of Russian athletes is stained with blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group have claimed that any Olympic medal won by Russians will be used as propaganda by the state. Russian medal winners are often linked to military sports clubs such as the professional football club CSKA which is tied to the army.<\/p>\n

European allies of Ukraine have tried to exert pressure on Olympic and sports officials, and Sweden's sports minister said the IOC decision was \u201cupsetting and very regrettable."<\/p>\n

"Neutral flag is an illusion and this contributes to normalising the Russian war of aggression,\u201d sports minister Jakob Forssmed wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

\"Bronze<\/p>\n

The IOC and president Thomas Bach urged excluding Russia from sports when the war started days after the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Games, then eased their position through last year as qualifying events for Paris approached.<\/p>\n

Paris is the fifth straight Olympic Games where Russia and its athletes have faced calls to be banned since the steroid-tainted 2014 Sochi Winter Games which was Bach\u2019s first as IOC president.<\/p>\n

In Paris, Russian athletes will compete as individual neutral athletes \u2014 using the French acronym AIN \u2014 at the fourth straight games the team name \u201cRussia\u201d was not allowed.<\/p>\n

Last year, Bach pointed to the gravity of Russia breaching the United Nations-backed Olympic Truce that was in place for the Winter Games and Paralympics in China.<\/p>\n

A fresh Olympic Truce for Paris was approved this month at the UN in New York, though with only 118 votes in favour from the 193 member states. Notedly, Russia and Syria abstained.<\/p>\n

Russian athletes who compete in Paris will be invited directly by the IOC and their sport's governing body, and will not be affected by a current suspension of their national Olympic committee.<\/p>\n

The IOC has allocated over $11 million for sport in Ukraine, and said it \u201creaffirmed again the steadfast commitment of the entire Olympic movement to help Ukrainian athletes in every way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Select Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the International Olympic Committee has declared, in a decision that removed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":352688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352692,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352686\/revisions\/352692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/352688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}