IOC Provisionally Lifts Suspension on Russia
The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee.
The decision clears the way for unfettered participation of Russian athletes and teams in international competition. The ROC has been suspended since Oct. 12, 2023, in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.
In an official release, the IOC said the decision was taken, “following a thorough analysis by the IOC’s Legal Affairs Commission, considering that the ROC no longer includes as its members any regional sports organisations in territories falling under the jurisdiction of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine.” The IOC said it will monitor the situation.
The IOC said that with qualification for the Los Angeles Olympics and Dolomiti Valtellina Winter Youth Olympics in 2028 underway, in a nod to “equal access to these competitions to all athletes,” the IOC is lifting the, “recommended conditions of participation for International Federations (IFs) and international sports event organisers of 28 February 2022 and 28 March 2023 as they relate to Russian athletes and teams.”
The IOC’s Executive Board recommended a similar decision for Belarus in May. Belarus had been bundled into the Russian suspension for providing staging and material support for the invasion, which continues.
The reinstatement comes with conditions. Athletes returning to international conditions must meet anti-doping requirements – with an entirely different struggle underway between the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency. Athletes returning to competition, “must have been tested multiple times prior to their return based on a sports risk assessment.” International federations are tasked with creating a fair timeframe for the returns, and they must set the anti-doping rules in consultation with relevant anti-doping agencies.
The IOC also states that, “Should RUSADA still be considered non-compliant by WADA in 2028 prior to the LA28 Olympic Games, the IOC will instruct the ITA to ensure that all qualified Russian athletes have been subject to independent testing following the same approach.”
The IOC is leaving up to international federations decisions such as display of Russian flag, anthem and colors, as well as whether to host events within Russia. The IOC will make a decision on Russian colors at IOC events like the Los Angeles Olympics “at the appropriate time,” and is for now refraining from organizing IOC events in Russia or inviting Russian state officials to events.
The IOC did state that its stance condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “remains unchanged” and that the IOC “stands in solidarity with the Olympic community of Ukraine. (That has included at least one notable exception from IOC president Kirsty Coventry, which goes unmentioned in the release.) It did not extend invitations to Russia and Belarus athletes for the Paris Olympics in 2024, allowing some athletes under “strict” conditions and without full national recognition and regalia.
While the IOC joined the international community in excluding Russia from international competition in the immediate aftermath of the invasion – which started weeks after the 2022 Winter Olympics – its reasoning emphasized different things. The main sticking point for the IOC, in a decision that was made official in October of 2023, was Russia’s attempted annexation of Ukrainian regional sporting organizations, which violated the sporting sovereignty of the country. It specifically cited forcing sports bodies in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia as a significant breach of the Olympic charter.
With deference given to international federations, World Aquatics becomes the barrier to reintegration for Russian and Belarussian athletes. It ruled in February that participants from those countries can compete as neutral athletes, starting with the 2026 European Championships, though a request from European Aquatics successfully delayed their reintegration until until after those championships.