Additionally, the IOC will create a commission to verify each athlete with a Russian/Belarusian passport applying for participation in the Olympic Games, as well as support staff
International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially announced that at the moment Olympic Games 2024 qualified 19 athletes in neutral status – 12 representatives of Russia and 7 of Belarus.
The maximum possible number of participants from the aggressor and supporter countries at the upcoming Olympics is 82 (54+28). According to expert forecasts, no more than 36 Russians and 22 Belarusians in a neutral status will be able to enter the Olympic Games in Paris.
For comparison, at the previous Olympics in Tokyo, 330 athletes from the Russian Olympic Committee competed, as well as 104 representatives from Belarus.
In order to compete at the Games in Paris, it will not be enough for “neutral” athletes to qualify there on sports grounds. They will have to go through additional verification – for this purpose, the NOC Executive Committee decided to create a special Commission to verify the eligibility of individual neutral athletesabbreviated as AINERP (AIN Eligibility Review Panel).
The Commission will include IOC Vice President Nicole Hevertz, IOC Ethics Committee representative Po Gasol, Athletes Committee representative Seung Min Ryu, and Ethics Committee head Puckrette Girard-Zapelli as curator and secretary.
AINERP will screen each individual neutral athlete, as well as each member of the technical staff in the relevant status, for eligibility to participate in the Olympics. The commission will have the authority to invite the mentioned athletes and their assistants to participate in the Games.
AINERP will also monitor all “neutral” participants, their behavior, actions and statements during the Olympic Games and even after the competition. If the behavior of any “neutral” is considered to be contrary to the Olympic Charter, the Conditions of Participation in the 2024 Olympic Games or the Principles of Participation, issues will be referred to the Disciplinary Committee for action and sanctions.
At the same time, all previously adopted sanctions against the governments of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, guilty of starting the war, remain in force.
Let us recall that at the beginning of December 2023, the IOC Executive Committee decided to admit participants from Russia and Belarus in the status of “individual neutral athletes” to the 2024 Olympic Games. This decision has been repeatedly criticized by various authorities in Ukraine and abroad.
Later, the head of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine, Vadim Gutzeit, spoke about plans to assemble his own admission database regarding “neutral” athletes admitted to the 2024 Olympic Games.
Early in the morning of February 24, 2022, Russia fired rockets and aerial bombardment of most Ukrainian cities, and then launched a full-scale military invasion. The Russian war against Ukraine has continued for the 755th day.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
