The IOC still suspended OCD: this will not affect neutral athletes
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The punishment will last “until further notice”
The IOC announced the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee “until further notice.” The reason is the inclusion of the Olympic Councils of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in the ROC. This decision did not come as a surprise. And it’s even surprising that it didn’t happen earlier.
The Olympic councils of new regions of Russia were included in the ROC at a meeting of the organization’s executive committee last week. Following the decision, as is already usual, an official letter was sent to Thomas Bach from the head of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, Vadim Gutzeit. Topic: at the next meeting, bring up for consideration by the IOC Executive Committee the issue of sanctions for the inclusion of new regions in the ROC Olympic Councils. Bach said that the International Olympic Committee has begun an investigation procedure and will discuss the issue at an executive committee meeting in Mumbai.
So we discussed it. The organization’s communications director, Mark Adams, told reporters that the International Olympic Committee has suspended the Russian Olympic Committee until further notice for including the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in its membership of the Olympic councils. And he explained that, from the point of view of the IOC, the decision of the ROC to include four Olympic councils in its membership “is a violation of the Olympic Charter, since it affects the territorial integrity of Ukraine. OCD has been suspended effective immediately until further notice.”
The suspension means the ROC can no longer function as a national Olympic committee or receive funding from the Olympic movement. The restoration process, Adams said, will proceed as standard for the ROC, as with any other suspended National Olympic Committee.
Will our athletes who agree to do so in a neutral status now go and how will they go to the Olympic Games? But here everything remains the same as before: athletes, based on IOC criteria, cannot represent the ROC at the start, cannot use state support. And they have the right to speak only individually, having previously received neutral status, for which they apply themselves. Therefore, those athletes who decide to go to the Olympic Games can go there after going through the process of obtaining neutral status. Nothing has changed for them.
The International Olympic Committee has not yet announced the criteria for admission of Russia and Belarus specifically to the Games in Paris 2024, and, as Adams said, reserves “the right to make a decision on the admission of neutral athletes to the Olympics in Paris and Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo as necessary time.” The recommendations themselves regarding the admission of athletes remain in force.
The IOC representative clarified that there is no deadline for a decision on the participation of neutral athletes in the Games, “we have always talked about this.” And he suggested that the decision would be made at the right moment: “I think it will be shortly before the Olympics.”
An official statement followed from the ROC, in which the IOC decision was named
“another counterproductive decision with obvious political motives.”
The Olympic Committee notes that this step does not affect Russian athletes in any way; the neutralization status remains unchanged.
“ROC, as a participant in the international sports movement, reserves the right to protect its own interests, as well as the interests of athletes and organizations of a sovereign country, which we represent in good faith.”
Newspaper headline:
The IOC extinguished the Olympic flame
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