Head of World Athletics and candidate for the position of president of the International Olympic Committee (CIO ) Sebastian Coe said it was necessary to find ways to bring Russians and Belarusians back to competitions when a favorable situation develops.
“In athletics, I have always maintained that it is my responsibility to ensure that our sport remains global and that, where possible, we remain politically neutral. But there are times when that means taking a stand. This happened with Russia and Belarus, but it was not a decision I made unilaterally. I’m not that kind of leader. This was a decision discussed and agreed to by the World Athletics Board of Directors, many of whose members are Olympic champions, world champions and world record holders. I did not come into this sport to stop athletes from competing, and neither did any of the board members.
But back to Russia. During the doping scandal revealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), World Athletics found a way to separate clean athletes from those who were clearly tainted by the system. We created the opportunity for athletes to become neutral and established processes that others have now adopted. We need to find a way to get athletes back when it’s appropriate, and we have a working group looking at this and reporting back to the board. The independent body against adverse events in athletics also has more than 40 Russian and Belarusian athletes in its international monitoring group, so when the time comes we will have the appropriate process in place to evaluate each athlete,” Coe told Sportsin.
In March 2023, World Athletics reinstated its membership in the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) after seven and a half years. Despite this, the suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes was extended due to the situation in Ukraine.
At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, 15 Russian athletes competed in neutral status.
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Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
