How do you solve a problem like Russia? The next President of the International Olympic Committee will have to aboard the question of whether or not to let Russian and Belarusian athletes compete at the upcoming winter Olympics.
The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in 2023 for violating the Olympic charter after Russia invaded Ukraine following the close of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Since then, some Russian and Belarusian athletes have been able to participate in events in a sharply restricted way as neutral athletes, with no Opening Ceremony marching, national flags, emblems, or victory ceremony anthems allowed.
Athletes who want to compete as neutrals are subject to vetting by their international governing bodies, and must demonstrate that they have not publicly supported the war in any way, including on social media. Those who have been allowed back compete under the auspices of being an “Independent Neutral Athlete” (AIN) with neutral clothing. If they win an event, a neutral piece of music is played.
International sports federations get to decide whether Russian and Belarussian athletes can compete as neutrals. Several have allowed a handful of competitors from the two countries in, with 32 AIN athletes taking part at last summer’s Games in Paris. The winter sports federations, including those that govern skiing and snowboarding, curling, luge, and ice hockey have by and large stood steadfast: no Russians or Belarusians, even as neutrals.
Several candidates running for the IOC Presidency have publicly agreed (with one notable exception) that the situation can’t endure forever. But how to resolve it? Can it even be resolved? In pitches to the media and interviews, the seven candidates took different tacks, lamenting that the Olympics should be for everyone, extolling the virtues of the AIN compromise, or acknowledging that Russian and Belarussian participation is a difficult question.
“There’s nothing I’d like more than to be able to have the whole world at the Olympic Games. I think that’s what our objective is; it’s about inclusion, not exclusion,” said HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, who is also president of his country’s Olympic committee. “But I also recognize that there are certain limitations and concerns…as President of the IOC, my role and responsibility is to uphold the Olympic charter. And as long as nobody is in violation, then there is no reason for sanctions.”
“But,” Al Hussein added hastily, “obviously any nation that violates the Olympic charter will face sanctions.”
“They should not be indefinitely suspended by the IOC,” opined David Lappartient, the Frenchman who is currently President of the International Cycling Union. Were he to win the IOC election March 20, “the objective would be to have them come back into the field,” he said, with the caveat that the conflict would need to be resolved before any definite decisions could be made.
“So it seems a bit premature to make such a decision, either for the 2026 Olympics or in the middle and long term,” Lappartient said.
Who gets to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics?
The war’s conclusion can’t come soon enough for winter hopefuls from both countries aiming to compete at next year’s Olympics in Milano-Cortina. Qualifying events in several sports will be held this year, and since the international federations in each sport and not the IOC decides who competes in these events, many athletes are training in limbo.
Both Russia and close ally Belarus are strong winter sports nations. Russia has consistently produced exceptional figure skaters, and the country’s men’s ice hockey team won the Olympic title in 2018 while competing under the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” (OAR) banner, having lost its Olympic Committee privileges after a massive state-sponsored doping scheme was uncovered in 2014. Belarusian competitors excel in biathlon and aerial skiing, and the two sports account for every medal but one that the nation has won at the Winter Games.
International federations are split on the issue. While the International Skating Union and the International Ski Mountaineering Federation recently announced they will allow a curated list of Russian and Belarussian athletes to pursue Olympic berths at competitions this year as independent neutral athletes, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has held firm: no Russians and no Belarussians at any qualifying event, period. That looks unlikely to change anytime soon.
Swedish media outlet SVT recently reported that the IOC had reached out to both the FIS and the International Biathlon Union and urged them to consider letting neutral athletes compete. Both federations have said no.
“The situation is clear and has remained unchanged: any decision regarding the participation of neutral athletes in FIS events is a prerogative of the FIS Council, which has been constantly reviewing and discussing the matter,” the FIS reportedly said to Russian media outlet TASS in a statement. “At the moment, there is no set timetable for any definition in this regard.”
International Ski President Johan Eliasch, also a candidate for the IOC Presidency, told reporters in January that he does not see anything wrong with the present system.
“I believe in the current circumstances and also looking back at Paris the AIN program worked very well,” Eliasch remarked. “I think it’s very important because no athlete can choose where they were born and the athletes must never be weaponized for political purposes.”
International Gymnastics Federation President Morinari Watanabe traveled to both Kiev and Moscow in the past several weeks. In Kiev, he visited with rhythmic gymnasts whose training had been disrupted by the invasion and subsequent war.
In Russia, Watanabe was warmly greeted by four-time Olympic medallist Nikita Nagornyy, head of the Young Army Cadets National Movement, whose name has appeared on sanction lists by the United States and Canada.
Despite the friendly reception, Watanabe told the Russians that they would not be permitted to represent Russia until the war in Ukraine was brought to a close, Kyodo News reported.
“As long as the war continues, [Russia and Belarus] should participate neutrally,” Watanabe told Olympics media site FrancsJeux.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe has not spoken recently on his stance, though he was clear about his support of his federation’s decision to close off the pathway for athletes from either nation to compete in track and field at the Paris Games.
“I am not a neutral,” Coe declared in 2023, sounding about as far from Bach as could be. “Athletics will not be on the wrong side of history.” Both Watanabe and Coe are also in the running to head the IOC.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., whose father was IOC President from 1980 to 2001, took a more moderate approach, seeming to adhere to Thomas Bach’s description of the Olympics as “building bridges, never erecting walls.”
“We have to be the house of everybody,” Samaranch said, “and we are working hard for that, and we will continue.”