CIO lifts suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee has opened up another significant window of opportunity for the readmission of Russian athletes to the competitions it organises. Ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the IOC Executive Board has provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, which had been imposed in 2023 in response to the war in Ukraine. Russian athletes and teams will be able to return to competing in Olympic qualifiers provided they “meet anti-doping requirements” and subject to the decisions of the individual international federations, whilst no decision has yet been taken regarding whether Russia will be allowed to fly its flag and play its national anthem at the Games.

The IOC has stated that it will continue to “neither organise events in Russia nor invite Russian government or state officials to its events”, and emphasised that today’s decision does not signify a change in its position on the invasion of Ukraine, which it continues to “strongly condemn”. Nevertheless, the decision to partially reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee was taken on the basis that it no longer includes among its members any regional sports organisations in territories falling under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee.

The decision was welcomed in Moscow, with the Russian Minister for Sport, Mikhail Degtyarev, stating on Telegram that the “IOC is sending a clear signal: the Olympic movement must remain free from politics’, adding that Russia plans to take part in the qualifiers for the 2028 Olympics. ‘Our country’s return to the Olympic family gives international federations the green light to restore the rights of all our athletes.’

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in 2021, the Moscow delegation fielded over 300 athletes, winning 71 medals. Following the ban imposed by the IOC, only 32 athletes from Russia and Belarus – which was also implicated as an ally of Moscow in the invasion of Ukraine – were allowed to compete at Paris 2024, but as neutral athletes. The same restrictions had been imposed for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Now the IOC has given individual federations the go-ahead to decide on the participation of Russian athletes, meaning that the doors may remain closed for certain disciplines.

Also today in Lausanne, the IOC announced that at the next Winter Olympics, in France, freeride skiing, freeride snowboarding and synchronised skating will be added to the programme, whilst the Nordic combined – which has been included since the very first edition in Chamonix in 1924 and was previously reserved for male athletes only – will no longer feature. The 2030 Games will thus be the first to achieve gender parity among athletes, with a total of 3,046 participants across 126 events.