LONDON – More than two-thirds of Russian athletes and one-third of Belarusian athletes scheduled to compete in the Paris Olympics have violated the International Olympic Committee's neutrality rules by supporting President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine or working for the Russian military or intelligence services, a new report has found.
“It is morally abhorrent that Ukrainian athletes should be expected to perform on the world stage alongside athletes who support violent crimes against them,” said Jeremy Pizzi of Global Rights Compliance, the human rights law group that published the report.
Pizzi said Russia has killed at least 450 Ukrainian athletes, including former Olympians, since its 2022 invasion.
As part of an international campaign to isolate Russia and its ally Belarus, athletes from those countries are only allowed to take part in the Olympics as independent and neutral athletes. They cannot use their country's flag, colors or anthem. The IOC also vets athletes to ensure they do not actively support Russian aggression or have ties to Moscow's military or intelligence services. No Russian or Belarusian government officials are invited to the Olympics.
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But despite these apparent safeguards, 17 of the 31 Russian and Belarusian athletes who accepted invitations to compete in Paris did not meet the IOC's so-called participation principles, according to GRC documents released on Wednesday night.
Those rules, enacted after Russian tanks invaded Ukraine in 2023, prohibit Olympians from supporting war in any way, including through media or social media, or from signing contracts with Russian or Belarusian military or security services.
GRC: 10-67% in Russia and 7-44% in% − 100% of Belarusian athletes going to Paris should not be able to compete due to IOC rules.
This included a Russian cyclist who violated neutrality rules by “liking” numerous pro-war posts on social media, including one questioning Ukraine's right to exist and one supporting the annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk, two Russian-held territories in eastern Ukraine.
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The GRC found that Russian tennis players had violated IOC rules by liking posts about “military feats” in which Russian soldiers killed Ukrainians, as well as posts that displayed the pro-war “Z” symbol.
The GRC said at least two of the Belarusian athletes competing in Paris served in the country's armed forces and that its investigation was based mainly on publicly available information.
“We cannot comment on individual cases or the decisions of the Independent Investigation Committee,” an IOC spokesperson said in a statement to USA Today. “The committee has investigated all athletes, in accordance with the decisions of the IOC Executive Board and the principle of neutral individual athlete participation at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
“Nothing more to add.”
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A representative for the Russian Olympic Committee, which has been suspended by the IOC since 2020, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Athletes from Belarus are similarly barred from competing in Paris unless they are neutral because Belarus has allowed Russia to use its territory to attack Ukraine. A representative for the Belarusian Olympic Committee also did not respond to a request for comment.
Pizzi said the GRC has repeatedly provided evidence to the IOC but the Olympic body has so far refused to act on it.
“The IOC has consistently declared that its guiding principles are peace, solidarity and human dignity. These are not words that I just quoted from somewhere, they are written in the IOC Constitution,” he added, adding that IOC President Thomas Bach “always says this.”
A recent report from The Moscow Times said that Russian television may not broadcast the Olympics for the first time in 40 years, as almost all Russian athletes will not be participating.
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About 330 Russians and 104 Belarusians took part in the last Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2020. Russia's invasion of Ukraine occurred just days after the Beijing Winter Olympics ended in late February 2022.
In March of that year, Russia's reckless invasion of Ukraine led to 71 Russian athletes and 12 Belarusian athletes being reclassified as neutral athletes at the Paralympic Games, also held in Beijing.
In January 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opposed Russian athletes' participation in the Paris Olympics. “We know how often tyranny tries to use sport for its ideological interests. It is clear that the neutral flag of Russian athletes is stained with blood,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Zelenskyy invited Bach to Bakhmut, the site of fierce fighting that claimed tens of thousands of lives at the time, “to see for himself that there is no such thing as neutrality.”
