31 neutral athletes have accepted the invitation of the International Olympic Committee and will compete at the 2024 Olympics.
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The IOC has published a list of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports who will be able to compete at the 2024 Games in Paris on its official website.
To receive an invitation, athletes had to pass the IOC’s neutrality check and compete under the flag of “neutral athletes” in individual tournaments only.
The Paris Olympics will run from July 26 to August 11. In December 2023, the IOC allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in a neutral status. There was also a condition that athletes would not be allowed if they actively spoke out in support of the Russian invasion.
However, as the human rights group Global Rights Compliance has found, most of these athletes support Russia’s war in Ukraine and violated the rules of neutrality. The group notes that they provided this evidence to the Olympic Committee.
At least nine of them traveled to occupied Crimea, glorify the occupiers and respect Russian generals. Over time, half of the athletes either refused to participate or failed the test.
Three of the 15 Russians admitted were subjects of our investigation: Tamara Dronova (she worked in the Dynamo security structure and traveled to occupied Crimea), Elena Ivanchenko (she visited Crimea and performed in occupied Sevastopol), and Angela Bladtseva (she performed against the backdrop of Z-symbols, the inscription “We don’t abandon our own” and other propaganda posters).
According to the IOC principles, neutral athletes should not support the war against Ukraine, nor use national or military symbols, such as St. George’s ribbons or the Z symbol. This also applies to social networks, interviews and reposts of athletes. That is, Dronova, Ivanchenko and Bladtseva do not meet the criteria of “neutral athlete”.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.