The head of the ROC admitted that the IOC will demand that Russian athletes condemn the SVO

The President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov admitted that one of the criteria of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the admission of Russian athletes to the Olympics in Paris will be the condemnation of a special military operation in Ukraine. There was no such clause in the published clarifications of the IOC.

“Our colleagues from Lausanne shared with us information about the registration procedure for participation in the Games, it clearly states that the IOC bears full responsibility in connection with the temporary suspension of the ROC in relation to neutral athletes. Accordingly, the IOC will individually contact athletes who wish to participate in this, so to speak, farce,” Mr. Pozdnyakov told reporters (quoted by “RIA News”).

Before the start of the Olympic Games, Stanislav Pozdnyakov said, athletes will be given conditions that meet the criteria that the IOC announced in December. In particular, athletes “must condemn the SVO and sign certain other documents” that could lead “to negative consequences in the form of violation of Russian legislation,” the ROC believes.

According to the decision of the IOC Executive Committee, Russian and Belarusian athletes can be admitted to the Olympics in Paris only in a neutral status in individual competitions. We are talking about those athletes who did not publicly support the special operation, are not associated with the security forces of Russia and Belarus and will agree with the updated charter, which talks about the peaceful objectives of the Olympic movement.

In February, the head of the Russian Ministry of Sports Oleg Matytsin statedthat the decision on the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympics will be made after the final approval of the IOC admission criteria. Following this, the committee reported about the absence of additional conditions. In December 2023, a license to participate in the Olympic Games got six Russian and five Belarusian athletes.

About preparation for the Olympics – in the publication “Kommersant” “Paris has calculated its capacity”.

Lusine Balasyan