The athletes had initially been banned from competing internationally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) has given the inexperienced mild to the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes within the video games subsequent 12 months as neutrals.
Russian and Belarusian athletes who qualify of their sport for the Paris 2024 Olympics will be capable to participate with out flags, emblems or anthems, outdoors of staff occasions and so long as they don’t actively assist the battle in Ukraine, the IOC stated on Friday.
The athletes had initially been banned from competing internationally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however have since been steadily allowed again as impartial athletes in most sport.
The IOC stated eight Russians and three Belarusians are amongst 4,600 athletes worldwide who’ve to this point certified for the Summer time Video games, which open in July.
They may solely be allowed to compete in particular person sports activities and no groups for the 2 international locations shall be allowed to take part in Paris.
Greater than 60 Ukrainian athletes have certified for subsequent 12 months’s Paris Olympics. A complete of about 11,000 athletes will participate within the video games subsequent 12 months.
Athletes and officers from Ukraine, together with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have repeatedly urged the IOC to exclude Russia and Belarus completely.
Nonetheless, representatives of worldwide sports activities federations and nationwide Olympic committees had called for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be admitted below a impartial flag “as soon as possible”.
Ukraine’s Sport Minister Matviy Bidnyi advised the AFP information company upfront of the choice on Thursday that Kyiv was involved the transfer seemed that the IOC “does not want to demonstrate the necessary leadership in the matter of Olympic fairness and justice”.
“As aptly stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky: ‘Obviously, any neutral flag of Russian athletes is stained with blood,’” stated Bidnyi.
“When there is a war and one nation with its passports is destroying another nation, then ‘neutrality’ becomes irresponsibility,” he stated, including that giving up their Russian passport was “the only possible way today for an athlete to prove Olympic excellence is his first priority”.
Earlier this 12 months, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the IOC of utilizing the video games as a type of “ethnic discrimination”.
