IOC Tries to Continue Balancing Act Between Russia, Ukraine

The International Olympic Committee made like a gymnast trying to stay on a balance beam on Thursday, simultaneously saying that Russia and Belarus will not get formal invitations to the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris while at the same time criticizing not only Ukraine but other countries pushing for the total exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes in Paris.

It is an IOC tradition one year before a Summer Games or Winter Games opens to invite all the national teams worldwide to the event. The IOC said Thursday that 203 eligible national Olympic committees (NOCs) will be sent their invitations to Paris on July 26 but “this will exclude the NOCs of Russia and Belarus, plus the NOC of Guatemala, which is currently suspended.”

And in the same, lengthy statement, the IOC took aim at Ukraine, which had athletes pull out of the judo and taekwondo world championships due to the participation of Russians and Belarusians.

“It is hard to understand why the Ukrainian government is depriving its own athletes of their chance to qualify for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and to make the Ukrainian people proud,” the IOC said.

The organization also returned to a familiar talking point against criticism from countries asking for a total ban of Russia and Belarus, saying — not for the first time — “we have not seen a single comment from them about their attitude towards the participation of athletes whose countries are involved in the other 70 wars, armed conflicts and crises in the world.”

The IOC urged international sports bodies last year to block and isolate athletes, officials and host cities from Russia and Belarus within days of the war starting 17 months ago. But as the Olympics in Paris draw near, the IOC has pushed those same sports bodies to try to let some Russians and Belarusians evaluated as neutral individuals to compete in qualifying events.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been allowed to compete as neutrals at the Hangzhou Asian Games to help them earn points to qualify for the Olympics.

The IOC statement on Thursday also repeatedly referred to support for its position from the United Nations, another previous talking point it has tried to use to persuade the international sports world no matter the negative popular opinion it has received from Ukraine supporters.

“The Russian side wants the IOC to ignore the war,” the IOC said. “The Ukrainian side wants the IOC to totally isolate anyone with a Russian and Belarusian passport. Both positions are diametrically opposed to the IOC’s mission and the Olympic Charter.”

How the international sports world reacts to the IOC’s statement on Thursday remains to be seen. Some bodies, including World Athletics most prominently, have not allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to return. International support for Ukraine has not waned since Russia’s invasion and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been consistent in his position about Russia’s place in world sport since the invasion began — unlike the IOC, which initially took a firm position against Russia but has been softening its stance for months.

If anything, the IOC’s policy announcement in February 2022 when Russia first invaded Ukraine was so fast it took the international sports community aback given its previous hair-splitting explanations as to how Russians have been allowed to compete for years in the Olympics given the country’s doping issues. And since it began softening its stance, criticism of its tentative embrace of Russian athletes has clearly wounded IOC President Thomas Bach, who in February of this year shot back “history will show who is doing more for peace.”