Athletes from Russia and Belarus in almost every Olympic sport could soon be told they will be banned from competing at the 2024 Paris Games.
That's according to former International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice-president Sir Craig Reedie, who issued a warning as the two-year countdown to Paris gets underway. IOC members elected to ban all Russian and Belarusian athletes from competition indefinitely in late February following their role in the invasion of Ukraine.
Almost four months later and the siege of Ukraine is ongoing, and former World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Reedie doesn't envision those athletes being allowed to compete anytime soon. Lawmakers in tennis, cycling and judo opted to allow Russian and Belarusian participants, though every other federation agreed to outlaw athletes from the two countries.
“I’m afraid a decision is going to have to be taken on what happens to each of these two countries," said Reedie, who joined the IOC in 1994 and is still among its British representatives. "And my guess is that the general feeling would be that they should not qualify.
“I think most people are struggling with how we could achieve some degree of representation. At the moment, there is no clear way to do it. Therefore, you maintain the status quo.”
Many would hope Russia's invasion of Ukraine will long be over when Paris 2024 kicks off on July 26 of that year. However, the matter is complicated as qualifying periods move within sight and the war still very much at a hostile stage.
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Reedie, 81, suggested it would be very hard for athletes to begin their qualification processes late, saying it would be unfair to those representatives from other nations. “It’s quite difficult halfway through to say ‘all of you who have now qualified, we’ve changed the rules’," added the Scot.
He described the conundrum as "a real issue for the federations," who must soon make the tough decision on whether to let Russians and Belarusians take part.
Athletes from the two territories in question were recently banned from competing at Wimbledon in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The other tennis majors have not followed suit thus far, while the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has also opted against a ban.
