Athletes’ Commission of the Russian Olympic Committee (COR) rejected this Friday the conditions imposed by the IOC on Russians and Belarusians to return to international competition after their exclusion in 2022 due to the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.
In the official statement of the commission it is noted.
We are convinced that the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competitions should be carried out only on the basis of equality with other participants in the Olympic movement.
Russian athletes reject any “additional condition, order, restriction or criterion“, which includes the status of neutrality raised by the IOC, which they consider discriminatory.
Criteria presented by the IOC, “excessive, unreasonable and discriminatory”as they relate to nationality, the discipline they practice and the structure to which the athlete belongs, they point out.
Indirectly, they were referring to the decision to exclude athletes associated with the army and security forces, such as the Central Sports Club of the Russian Army, whose members won 45 of Russia’s 71 medals at the last Tokyo Olympics, a demand explicitly put forward by Ukraine.
In particular, they condemned the deprivation of the athlete of the national identity – the flag and anthem – and the opportunity to play for teams.
From our point of view, a dangerous precedent is being set in which no athlete in the world can be sure that in the future his civil rights will be properly respected.
They condemn what athletes have become “hostages of political games” who are leading the world of sports to division and who consider the discriminatory selection of athletes “humiliating”.
The commission also considers the ban on the participation of Russian athletes in disciplines involving Ukrainians and Belarusians a violation of the Olympic Charter.
At the end of March, the IOC recommended that international federations and organizers of sports competitions allow participation “individually and as neutrals” athletes “with Russian and Belarusian passports”, terms that the COR branded as “farce”.
According to its president, the German Thomas Bach, Among the conditions that allow a return to competition, there is no “active support for the war”, as well as serving in the army or law enforcement agencies of their countries.
In general, Russia can already play neutrally in nine Olympic events with an eye on Games Paris 2024despite opposition from Ukraine and many Western countries, after recently receiving permission from the Modern Pentathlon Federation.
The Asian and African Olympic Committees, continents visited by several high-ranking Russian officials, ruled in favor of the presence of neutral Russian and Belarusian athletes.
Ukraine claims Russia should be expelled for violating three consecutive “Olympic Truce” – in 2008, 2014 and 2022 – and the presence in the Olympic teams of this country of athletes associated with army clubs and other Russian law enforcement agencies.
According to Kyiv, the Russian military intervention was claimed the lives of 262 athletesforced more than 40,000 people to seek refuge in other countries and destroyed about 350 sports facilities.
(According to information from EFE)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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