PARIS – Russian groups, together with the nation’s highly effective nationwide ice hockey facet, stay banned from competing at subsequent yr’s Milano-Cortina winter Olympics as a part of sanctions imposed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Worldwide Olympic Committee stated on Tuesday.
The IOC was responding to experiences out of Russia that hockey officers from the nation had held talks with the worldwide ice hockey federation (IIHF) over Olympic participation.
“The IOC Govt Board suggestion from March 2023 with regard to groups of athletes with a Russian passport stays in place,” the IOC stated.
“It’s based mostly on the truth that, by definition, a bunch of Particular person Impartial Athletes can’t be thought of a workforce. We take notice that the IIHF has confirmed that it’s going to comply with this suggestion.
A small variety of particular person Russian and Belarusian athletes have been allowed to participate within the Paris 2024 summer season Olympics after rigorous vetting by the IOC.
They competed with out the Russian or Belarusian flag and anthem. As a substitute they took half as impartial athletes. All Russian groups have been banned. Belarus has acted as a staging floor for the invasion.
4 Russian determine skaters in males’s and girls’s singles have been just lately authorized by the Worldwide Skating Union to attempt to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics as impartial athletes.
Russian ice hockey gamers received gold on the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and silver 4 years later in Beijing.
The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in October 2023 for recognising regional Olympic councils for Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine – Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
“This (October 2023) suggestion was made after consultations with the Worldwide Federations involved and the opposite Olympic Motion stakeholders,” the IOC stated.
“This place displays the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee due to its annexation of regional sports activities organisations on the territory of the Nationwide Olympic Committee of Ukraine.”
“Such motion constitutes a breach of the Olympic Constitution as a result of it violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine, as recognised by the IOC in accordance with the Olympic Constitution,” the Olympic physique stated.
The Winter Olympics in Italy run from February 6-22.
—Reuters