PACE recommends IOC ban Russian, Belarusian athletes from 2024 Olympics

June 23, BPN. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said.

Seventy-one deputies voted in favor of the resolution adopted on June 22, with four votes against.

The resolution describes participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Olympics in current circumstances as “unthinkable.” It would “certainly be used as a tool of propaganda and would de facto prevent other athletes, not least Ukrainian athletes, from participating,” it reads.

Top athletes in Russia and Belarus receive state salaries and are often part of military sports teams, PACE noted. “It does not seem possible that they will be able to demonstrate their neutrality and distance themselves from these regimes, let alone make any statements against the war,” it stressed.

After Russia’s new assault on Ukraine in late February 2022, the IOC called on the international sports federations not to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete. That call was immediately answered on a mass scale and resulted in the almost complete isolation of Russian and Belarusian athletes.

However, in late March 2023, the IOC said that Belarusian and Russian athletes might be admitted to international competitions under a neutral flag on condition that they are not actively involved in supporting military operations and are not linked to the military.