The International Olympic Committee has announced that athletes from Russia and Belarus will be absent from the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, athletes from both countries were prohibited from participating.
However, eligible athletes from Russia and Belarus have the opportunity to compete as neutral participants in the Games.
A determination regarding their involvement in the closing ceremony will be made at a later time.
The IOC said they would not be part of the opening ceremony “since they are individual athletes, but an opportunity will be provided to them to experience the event”.
Currently, there are 12 individual neutral athletes holding Russian passports and seven individual neutral athletes with Belarusian passports who have secured berths for Paris 2024, out of the 6,000 quota places allocated thus far.
For the upcoming Paris Games, their participation terms entail competing without the display of their respective flags, emblems, or anthems.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) denounced Russia’s proposal to host ‘Friendship Games’ as “a cynical attempt” by the nation to politicize sports.
Russia aims to organize this event in September of this year, with a subsequent winter Games scheduled for 2026.
The IOC has condemned this plan as “a blatant violation of the Olympic Charter.”
The inaugural Friendship Games occurred in 1984, organized by the Soviet Union and eight other nations following their boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics.
The IOC added: “The Russian government has launched a very intensive diplomatic offensive by having government delegations and ambassadors, as well as ministerial and other governmental authorities, approaching governments around the world.
“To make their purely political motivation even more obvious, they are deliberately circumventing the sports organisations in their target countries.
“This is a blatant violation of the Olympic Charter and an infringement of the various UN resolutions at the same time.
“It is a cynical attempt by the Russian Federation to politicise sport.”
Furthermore, it criticized the Russian government for displaying “complete disregard for global anti-doping regulations and the integrity of competitions.”
The IOC also emphasized the potential undue pressure on athletes who may be compelled to participate in the Friendship Games, warning that they could become “victims of exploitation within a political propaganda agenda.”
Last week, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) raised concerns regarding unauthorized multi-sport events during its gathering in Lausanne, Switzerland.
WADA highlighted that the Friendship Games would not operate under the protection of the World Anti-Doping Code, thus posing a threat to the “health and fairness” of athletes.