Athletes from Russia will not be allowed to take part in the athletes’ parade at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The head of the International Olympic Committee made this decision on Tuesday after discussions in Lausanne. Athletes from Belarus, which is a close ally of Russia, are also not allowed to take part in the planned spectacle with 600 boats on the Seine to open the Summer Games on July 26th because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
The IOC announced that athletes from both countries should be given the chance to witness the ceremony as spectators. “We will make sure they can enjoy the experience,” said IOC director James Macleod. A decision about whether to take part in the closing ceremony on August 11th will be made later.
At the beginning of the month, the makers of the Paralympics, which will also take place in Paris shortly after the Olympic Games, made a similar decision. At both the Olympics and the Games for disabled athletes, starters from Russia and Belarus are only admitted to the competitions under certain conditions.
Participants from these countries must compete under a neutral flag. Their anthems are not allowed to be played; instead, a specially produced piece of music without lyrics is used at award ceremonies. Russians and Belarusians are prohibited from wearing or displaying national symbols at the Olympic sites. Teams from both countries are completely excluded, only individual athletes are allowed. The medals won by Russians and Belarusians are not included in the medal table.
Thomas Weikert, President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, welcomed the IOC decision on the opening ceremony. “There should therefore be no images from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games that show a Russian or Belarusian team,” said Weikert. The approach follows the example of the treatment of athletes from the former Yugoslavia at the 1992 Olympic opening ceremony in Barcelona, the IOC said.
In addition, the responsible world associations and the IOC are to ensure in a multi-stage review process that the athletes from Russia and Belarus who are eligible to compete in Paris have no connections to the army or security organs. In addition, they must not have actively supported the war in Ukraine.
A three-member IOC review committee is supposed to guarantee compliance with these conditions. It includes IOC Vice President Nicole Hoevertsz, former basketball professional Pau Gasol as a representative of the Ethics Commission and table tennis player Seung-Min Ryu as an athlete representative. After the sporting qualification, they decide whether Russian and Belarusian athletes will receive an invitation to the games. The commission will then continue to regularly examine the behavior of these athletes until they return from Paris.
Russia considers the requirements to be “illegal, unfair and unacceptable,” said Stanislav Posdnyakov, head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). The Russians recently ruled out a boycott of the Olympics.
The ROC itself was suspended by the IOC for including the four annexed Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia. Russian politicians and top sports officials should not have access to the Olympic competitions.
Opponents of the start clearance for Russia’s athletes, especially Ukraine, fear propaganda campaigns at the Summer Games. There are no neutral athletes in Russia, Ukrainian Sports Minister Matwij Bidny recently told the German Press Agency.
The IOC pointed out that due to the conditions of participation, only a significantly smaller number of Russian athletes would take part in Paris than at previous Olympic Games. Twelve Russians and seven Belarusians are currently qualified for the Olympics. A number of between 36 and 54 Russians and 22 and 28 Belarusians are expected.
