They are the questions in international sports that will not go away: Should Russian and Belarusian athletes be allowed to compete and, if not, then how long should they remain in sporting Siberia?
Those questions have taken on new urgency this month, as competitions in winter sports get underway for the first time since earlier this year, when those two nations were thrown out in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The usually conflict-averse International Olympic Committee even urged individual sports to exclude Russians and Belarusians, though it couched that recommendation as a way to prevent national governments from meddling in sports by denying visas for athletes from those countries.
Little thought was given to how long the prohibitions, or the war, might last. The Winter Olympics in Beijing had just ended. The 2024 Summer Games in Paris were more than two years away. FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, had quickly booted Russia from the qualifying competition for the World Cup, set to begin in Qatar Nov. 20. The major international summer sports, including swimming and track and field, barred Russians and Belarusians from their world championships.
But the sports calendar is edging closer to the Paris Games, and qualifying competitions for the event will be in full swing next year. That deadline, combined with the I.O.C.’s lofty goal of pursuing peace through sport — and the more practical one of preserving a relationship with Russia, a powerful Olympic partner — has the organization’s leaders wrestling with a problem that has no easy answer: How to stop punishing athletes for the actions of their governments, and how to do it amid an escalating war.
Efforts toward finding a resolution, however, are also running headlong into the sentiments of sports leaders from countries both frustrated with Russia over the war and still angry over years of doping violations that have corrupted one competition after another.
“How can it be that a national federation can compete as normal when it has invaded a country and blown up its training centers?” said Max Cobb, the general secretary for the International Biathlon Union, whose board last month voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm its prohibition of Russian and Belarusian participation.
Not all sports have followed that tack. Boxing’s international federation voted recently to move in the opposite way, lifting its bans. On Saturday, though, skiing’s international federation followed the biathlon union’s, voting at its fall meting to continue its prohibition of athletes from Russia and Belarus, “with due regard to the integrity of FIS competitions and for the safety of all participants, and in line with I.O.C. recommendations,” the organization said in a statement.
According to TASS, Russia’s state-run news agency, the country’s minister of sports, Oleg Matytsin, said the decision would deprive “sports fans of a spectacular fight for medals, and athletes of serious competition. Russian skiers are one of the strongest in the world, without them any international competitions lose their relevance, become less interesting and exciting, and the results on the scoreboard are noticeably inferior to previous ones.”
In the absence of a global policy on Russian and Belarusian participation, there is a mishmash of regulations, growing more complex by the week, with few knowing exactly who will be allowed to compete in the coming months.
In most of the so-called Olympic sports, such as biathlon, cross-country skiing, and figure skating, nations qualify a certain number of athletes (and support staff) based on the country’s overall performance during previous seasons. The athletes compete as part of those teams. That dynamic leaves almost no separation between athletes and their countries, giving justification to those who support punishing Russia and Belarus for the invasion by barring their athletes’ participation.
Last Wednesday, though, in an address in South Korea to the leaders of national Olympic committees from dozens of nations, Thomas Bach, the president of the I.O.C., called on sports officials to not allow the war to damage the mission of the Olympics, even as Russia has escalated its relentless bombing of infrastructure and civilian targets.
“Choose the path of unity and peace,” Bach stated at a meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees.
Bach insisted that since the Russian invasion had violated both the Olympic truce and its charter, especially the recent illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions, sanctions must remain. Those include bans on competitions in Russia and Belarus and the appearance of the flags, anthems and officials from those countries. But his speech also appeared to lay the groundwork for a day when Russian and Belarusian athletes can compete again, perhaps even before the war ends.
“Athletes should never be the victims of policies of their own government,” Bach said early in the speech. Later, he added, “Olympic sport needs the participation of all the athletes who accept the rules, even and especially if their countries are in confrontation or at war,” Bach said. “A competition between athletes from only like-minded countries is not a credible symbol of peace.”
As he nearly always has though, Bach left the ultimate decision on whether to allow athletes to compete up to the individual sports federations. Bach’s words carried weight this weekend when the executive council of skiing’s international federation met to decide its policy.
The skiing federation had already set aside slots for Russian and Belarusian athletes and coaches. Even those preliminary moves rankled certain members. The national governing bodies for skiing from Norway and Finland jointly called on FIS to ban Russian and Belarusian representatives from future meetings. Norway walked out of sessions that officials from those countries took part in.
The board of luge’s international federation voted last month to continue its suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes. Like skiing, skating’s world governing body has set aside quotas for Russia and Belarus but has not changed its stance and continues to bar Russians, who are among the best figure skaters in the world. No Russians or Belarusians participated in the first major event of the season, Skate America near Boston this weekend, much to the chagrin of those countries.
“The motto: ‘Sport is far away from politics,’ is not working any more,” Tamara Moskvina, the longtime Russian coach, said this week in a message from St. Petersburg, where she runs a skating school. “Of course, I am sure the common sense will appear again and the ban will be removed anytime soon.”
Russians and Belarusians have largely been allowed to play in tennis, though not as part of a national team or with any flag or country name associated with the players’ names, even as players from Ukraine have spoken about the anger and hurt they feel when Russian players avoid them.
Russians and Belarusians have also continued playing in professional organizations such as the N.H.L. and top soccer leagues. In those sports, the athletes are basically independent contractors.
Judo’s world governing body also voted to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes at its world championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, earlier this month, but only under a neutral flag. In response, Russian officials announced they would boycott the event.
