International Athletics Open The Possibility Of Russian And Belarusian Athletes Participating In The Paris Olympics

Sebastian Coe responded to the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics (doc. Athletics Weekly).

JAKARTA The International Athletics Federation (IAAF) has begun to open up the possibility of Russian and Belarusian athletes participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

IAAF president Sebastian Coe said the move might have taken place because their working group is currently monitoring the developing situation in the world.

"Did I see any changes in the future? I don't know. The world changes every five minutes and the situation can change," Coe said as quoted by Reuters.

Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that Russian and Belarusian athletes who qualify for Paris could take part as neutral athletes without flags, symbols, and national anthems.

It automatically changed the position of the initial ban after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, athletics as the largest and most popular sport in the Olympics said they would stick to the establishment of banning athletes from the two countries.

However, Coe in his latest statement did not seem convinced whether the ban would persist or not while speaking with the media crew on Monday, December 18, 2023.

He said so far their stance regarding the ban has not changed, but important decisions could be made following the existing dynamics.

"There is no change. The most important thing is the autonomy and independence of international federations in making this decision is very important. We make decisions that we believe are in the best interests of our sport," he said.

Individual Russian and Belarusian athletes participating in the 2024 Olympics as neutral athletes are those who qualify through the international federation qualification system in the field.

However, they must meet a number of very strict requirements. This includes the exception of the team of athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports.

Meanwhile, another requirement is athletes who do not actively support war or are under contract with the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies from the two countries.