People with weapons were released from Russia

On Friday, the Congress of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) decided to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions, from which they were suspended last spring shortly after the events in Ukraine began. The decision, adopted by an overwhelming majority of congress delegates, will enter into force in mid-April, which will allow Russian athletes to take part in all qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Games. So far, however, it is not clear under what flag the Russians will perform in team competitions. The FIE is awaiting advice from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on this matter.

On Friday, an emergency FIE congress was held online, which considered the issue of restoring the rights of Russian and Belarusian athletes, as well as functionaries from these countries. Congress delegates overwhelmingly decided to lift the restrictive measures introduced in March last year shortly after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. Then the IOC recommended that international sports federations remove Russian and Belarusian athletes, which the vast majority of them did (at the same time, the FIE president, Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov, temporarily resigned his powers).

89 delegates voted for the return of Russian and Belarusian fencers in a neutral status against 46 voted against. 85 people voted against 51 for the admission of Russians and Belarusians to team competitions. 88 against 48 voted for the return of Russian officials to work. Attempts by the Ukrainian side to block the adoption of the above decisions or at least postpone the issue to a later date did not lead to anything. The decision will come into force in mid-April. Considering that the qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Games in Paris will last from April 3, 2023 to April 1, 2024, Russian athletes will have enough time to score rating points.

As the president of the Russian Fencing Federation, Ilgar Mammadov, explained, the FIE did not require Russian athletes to sign any documents condemning the special military operation (this is required, for example, by the International Automobile Federation, FIA). “There are no other reservations about various documents, as in other sports,” Mr. Mammadov told RIA Novosti. In turn, the two-time Olympic champion Sofya Velikaya noted that “common sense has finally triumphed.” “I am very happy with the decision, I believed that this should happen, and I want to thank my colleagues from different countries who voted for our return,” Sofia Velikaya told TASS. “Sport should provide equal rights and conditions, and common sense has finally triumphed. While this is the most wonderful news in recent memory, we understand the challenges ahead. All this time we have been preparing, we will solve problems in stages, we are ready to overcome difficulties.”

Note that there is still a gap in the decision of the FIE Congress. It is not clear under what actual flag the Russians will take part in team competitions. While the FIE is waiting for some IOC recommendations on this matter. “Yes, it still is. As we say: until you get on a plane, you won’t fly to the Olympics. Of course, the first step has been taken. I am grateful to colleagues from foreign federations, those who supported us both openly and behind the scenes and helped. Serious work has been done, this is the work of a large team,” said Ilgar Mammadov. It must be said that the IOC, which back in January somewhat softened its position and announced that it was looking for ways to return Russians to international tournaments, apparently will not agree to Russians participating in team competitions under their own flag. Probably, a scheme will be proposed that has already been tested at the last two Olympics (summer Tokyo 2020 and winter Beijing 2022), where not the Russian team formally competed, but the team of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

We add that fencing is one of the most medal-intensive sports at the Games and it was the Russians who won the overall standings at the Tokyo Olympics. They had three gold, four silver and one bronze medals.

Alexander Petrov