The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has taken a significant step towards readmitting Russian and Belarusian athletes to global sports, advising governing bodies to allow their youth teams and athletes to compete under their national flags and anthems.
In a statement, the IOC asserted that athletes possess "a fundamental right to access sport across the world, and to compete free from political interference or pressure from governmental organizations."
This directive, which will likely be welcomed in Russia and Israel where athletes have faced recent discrimination, comes less than three years before the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games, potentially navigating political complexities in the United States.
The updated strategy emerged from an Olympic Summit, a gathering chaired by IOC president Kirsty Coventry involving key Olympic stakeholders.
The IOC acknowledged that "implementation by the stakeholders will take time," with each sport’s governing body responsible for defining youth events.
This easing of sporting isolation could extend to the IOC’s own Youth Olympic Games, scheduled for Dakar, Senegal, from 31 October to 13 November next year.
Russian teams have been fully excluded from international competitions, including football and athletics, since the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian and Belarusian tennis players were also banned from competing at Wimbledon in 2022, before the All England Club lifted the ban the following year, allowing stars such as Aryna Sabalenka and Daniil Medvedev to play.
Russian and Belarusian athletes in winter sports are already beginning to return under neutral status ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that will run from February 6-22, with some skiers being given permission to compete in qualifying events for the Games.
A small contingent of Russian and Belarusian athletes participated as neutrals, without national identity, at last year’s Paris Summer Games, where team sports were prohibited for these nations.
