The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to allow athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris as Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs).
AINS must qualify for the games through the mechanisms set up and maintained by International Federations (IFs). They must also abide by the games’ other rules and regulations, notably those against doping, and sign the Conditions of Participation contract as revised for Paris 2024, which includes a pledge to “respect the Olympic Charter, including ‘the peace mission of the Olympic Movement.’”
AINs will be competing as individuals, not on teams. They and their “support personnel” are forbidden to support the war in Ukraine. They may not be “contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies.”
Because the IOC’s sanctions on Russia and Belarus will remain in place, the games will display “no flag, anthem, colors or any other identifications whatsoever of Russia or Belarus,” and “no Russian or Belarusian government or state officials will be invited to or accredited for” the games.
According to the IOC, the IFs, the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) and the Continental Associations of National Olympic Committees (NOCs), along with a majority of the athletes themselves, asked that athletes not be punished “for the actions of their government.”
So far there are 11 INAs: eight with a Russian passport, three with a Belarusian passport. The IOC notes by comparison that so far, 60 Ukrainian athletes have qualified.
The IOC’s board issued its “Statement on solidarity with Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and Belarus, and the status of athletes from these countries” in January.
The IOC has since tripled its Solidarity Fund for Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee to $7.5 million, some share of which has gone out – as “financial or logistical support” – to about 3,000 Ukrainian athletes and other members of the country’s “Olympic community.”
The IOC sees the invasion of Ukraine as a “violation of the Olympic Truce that was in effect at the time, and of the Olympic Charter” and has recommended that “no international sports events be organized in Russia and Belarus; no flag, anthems or other national symbols whatsoever should be displayed at any international sports events; and no government or state officials should be accredited for or invited to any international sports events.”
The IOC says, in addition, that it has considered the “70 other ongoing armed conflicts and wars around the world” but that the NOCs in those regions “are following the principles of the Olympic Charter.” Their athletes may, therefore, “compete in international sporting competitions without restrictions.”
