Senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice-President John Coates is unsure how many Russian athletes will compete as neutral athletes at the Paris Games, but thinks reports that it might be as low as 40 could be close to the mark.
Under sanctions put in place because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, for which Belarus acted as a staging post, the IOC is allowing only some Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete in Paris under tight restrictions.
SYDNEY, March 17 (Reuters) – Senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice-President John Coates is unsure how many Russian athletes will compete as neutral athletes at the Paris Games, but thinks reports that it might be as low as 40 could be close to the mark.
Under sanctions put in place because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, for which Belarus acted as a staging post, the IOC is allowing only some Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete in Paris under tight restrictions.
“And then anyone who is prepared out of the Russian military clubs, they’re not going. I don’t know, but obviously some athletes might choose not to go if they’re not competing for Russia.
“I mightn’t be right, but I think that I’ve read something that it might be as little as 40.”
Neutral athletes will compete only in individual sports without flags, emblems or national anthems, and athletes who actively support the war in Ukraine, or are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military, are not eligible.
Moscow, which describes the invasion as a “special military operation”, called the restrictions “illegitimate, unfair and unacceptable”, but Russia’s Olympic chief, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, has confirmed its athletes would not boycott the Games.
Because of doping sanctions that prevented them from competing under the Russian flag, 335 athletes took part in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team, winning 71 medals. Belarus sent 101 athletes who won seven medals.
