(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s traditional sporting prowess has ensured its national anthem was a regular refrain at medal ceremonies of the modern Olympic era.
However, in 2019, Russia was banned from all major sporting events for four years by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Then in 2023, in response to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee excluded Russia and its ally Belarus from hosting international sports events or sending teams to the Olympics. It also barred their national flags, anthems and sports colors from events, and refused to accredit their government officials.
Yet some Russian and Belarusian athletes have been allowed to compete in Paris as “neutral” participants, as long as they weren’t involved in “actively supporting the war in Ukraine.” It’s been a controversial decision, and the sensitivity of the issue has put the IOC’s selection process under close scrutiny.
How did the IOC decide which Russians can compete at the Olympics?
On its website, the IOC said it took into consideration the athletes’ “public statements, including those made on social media; participation in pro-war demonstrations or events; and the displaying of any symbol supporting the war in Ukraine, for example, the “Z” symbol.”
It went on to specify that athletes would be ineligible if they were “contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies.” That threw up some ambiguity in the vetting process, given a legacy of military involvement in Russian sports academies dating back to Soviet times.
The Hague-based human-rights group Global Rights Compliance has accused the IOC of failing to properly apply the rules. It said more than half of the “neutral” athletes the IOC invited to compete were in violation of its own guidelines.
The NGO sent the report to the Games’ 15 main sponsors, urging them to reconsider their sponsorship of the Games or take some other form of action. There’s no sign that any of them have done so.
The IOC said it couldn’t comment on individual cases or the decisions of its neutral athletes eligibility panel.
So how many Russians and Belarusians are competing in Paris?
The IOC invited 59 Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete, of which 28 declined the offer. Some 330 Russians and 104 Belarusians took part in the 2021 Tokyo Games. The most prominent Russian competing in Paris was tennis star Daniil Medvedev, ranked fifth in the world in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour.
How are Russians and Belarusians identified at the Games?
They are competing as AINs (from the French initials for Independent Neutral Athletes) in neutral colors. A special Olympic flag and anthem were designed and composed in the past for neutral athletes. But the Russian and Belarusian athletes have been assigned a different flag that depicts a circular AIN emblem and a one-off, wordless anthem selected by the IOC.
The AINs’ medal tally doesn’t feature in the overall medal table, the aim being to ensure that their successes cannot be used as political ammunition by their countries’ leaders.
Are any other nations banned from the Olympics?
No. Politically isolated North Korea has made a return to the Summer Olympics after being absent since the 2016 Rio games, where it won seven medals, including two golds.
North Korea sat out the Tokyo Olympics, citing concerns about Covid-19. The decision led to the IOC banning North Korea from taking part in the 2022 Beijing winter games.
What’s the history of North Korea’s involvement in the Olympics?
North Korea’s reclusive leadership is keenly aware of the politics around its participation in international sporting events, and its attendance at the Olympics is never assured. It did not participate in six of the Winter Olympics since 1964, including one hosted by ally Russia in Sochi in 2014. It joined the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 games in Los Angeles and skipped the 1988 Summer Olympics in rival South Korea.
Pyongyang has also used the Olympics as a springboard for political openings. North Korea sent Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018 as part of a detente. The two Koreas marched jointly under a joint flag. The move eventually led to a series of high-level meetings for Kim Jong Un that culminated with a summit with Donald Trump several months later in Singapore — the first meeting between a North Korean leader and sitting US president.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
