The Executive Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided this Friday that those athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport who are part of the group of Neutral Individual Athletes (AIN) and who have been classified through the official systems of the international federations will be declared eligible to compete in the Paris 2024 Games. Who will these athletes be? Well, whatever meets a series of requirements, and always in an individual category. There will be no Russian or Belarusian teams in the French capital next summer.
Likewise, those athletes who actively support the war against Ukraine will not be able to participate. Those who are under contract to the Russian or Belarusian army or national security agencies will also not be able to obtain the placement. Logically, individual neutral athletes must comply with all anti-doping rules and will participate without any flag, emblem or anthem. Because? Because “sanctions against those responsible for the war (the States and governments of Russia and Belarus) will remain in force during the Paris Olympic Games,” according to the IOC statement.
Likewise, no representatives of the governments of Russia and Belarus will be invited or accredited.
This suggests a small participation of these two countries. Among the 4,600 athletes from around the world who have qualified for Paris 2024 to date, there are only eleven neutral athletes, eight with a Russian passport and three with a Belarusian passport.
In comparison, more than sixty Ukrainian athletes have qualified for Paris 2024 so far and their delegation is expected to be approximately the same size as at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (155).
In this sense, World Athletics reacted to the IOC’s decision by indicating that it maintains the suspension of the Russian and Belarusian athletes. “We will monitor the situation but if there is no radical change between now and the Games we will maintain the decision to exclude the Russians and Belarusians,” said a spokesperson for the organization chaired by Sebastian Coe. Ukraine opposes the presence of any Russian or Belarusian athlete because it will be a neutral flag “stained in blood.” The Parisian event will take place between July 26 and August 11.
