Culture Secretary critical of IOC moves to allow Russian athletes at Paris 2024

Moves to reintegrate Russian athletes into next year’s Paris Olympics amid the invasion of Ukraine have been criticised by the British Government.

The International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday it was continuing to work on a pathway which would enable Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals.

The IOC had advised international sports federations last February, in the days following the start of the invasion, to exclude athletes from their competitions, something IOC president Thomas Bach has since described as a measure to protect those athletes.

The IOC has now called on all athletes to be treated equally, regardless of the passport they hold, and said: “Governments must not decide which athletes can participate in which competition and which athletes cannot.”

The British Government has offered military and humanitarian support to Ukraine since the invasion began and Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan took a dim view of the IOC’s stance.

“I want to be clear that this position from the IOC is a world away from the reality of war being felt by the Ukrainian people – and IOC president Bach’s own words less than a year ago where he strongly condemned Russia for breaking the Olympic Truce and urged it to ‘give peace a chance’,” Donelan said.

“We will strongly condemn any action taken that allows President Putin to legitimise his illegal war in Ukraine – a position the IOC previously shared.

“We, and many other countries, have been unequivocal on this throughout, and we will now work urgently across like-minded countries to ensure that solidarity continues on this issue.”

The IOC had indicated last month following the Olympic Summit that a pathway for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete was being looked at, against the wishes of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky among others. At the Summit, the Olympic Council of Asia expressed its willingness for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be involved in events under its auspices in the run-up to Paris.

The IOC said the “vast majority” of national Olympic committees, international sports federations and athletes’ representatives it had consulted during subsequent calls on January 17 and 19 had supported the right of Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under “strict conditions”.

These include competing as neutrals, and would exclude any athlete deemed to have “actively supported” the war in Ukraine.

The British Olympic Association has declined to comment, but it is understood to be reassured that the concerns of British athletes over neutrality and doping have been recognised by the IOC as the global body examines its options.

The European Olympic Committee released a statement on Thursday endorsing the idea of a pathway.

“The EOC appreciates the importance of removing barriers to sport serving as a unifying force,” it read.

“The EOC does not feel athletes should be prevented from competing solely on the basis of which passport they hold. The EOC reviewed the current status of Russian and Belarusian participation at its ExCo meeting of January 21 and will continue its efforts to explore possible solutions as per the consultation calls held with the IOC.”

World Athletics, the international federation governing arguably the Olympics’ single highest-profile sport, says its Council will only consider lifting its total ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes related to the Ukraine invasion if it feels able to lift a separate suspension linked to state-sponsored doping in Russia.

A statement from the federation read: “At our Council meeting on March 21-23, we will receive a report from the independent Russia Taskforce on whether the intensive work we have conducted in cleaning up athletics in Russia has now been sufficiently embraced for the doping related suspension to be lifted.

“If Council does decide that this is the case, they will move on to considering the second decision that Council made, relating to the exclusion of Russian and Belarussian athletes and officials following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”