The Olympic Committee has known as on international locations to keep away from the video games, set to launch weeks after the summer season Paris Olympics.
As Russia organises a possible rival to the Olympics, the Worldwide Olympic Committee known as the nation’s “Friendship Video games” an try to “politicise sport,” in an announcement launched Tuesday.
“Russia’s plan to carry the Friendship Video games is a political motion that violates the Olympic Constitution, and international locations mustn’t participate in them,” the Worldwide Olympic Committee assertion continued.
Russia stated final yr it deliberate to relaunch the multisport “Friendship Video games” in 2024, 40 years after its first version. It was organised by the Soviet Union and eight different international locations after they boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, citing security issues in what they thought-about a hostile and anticommunist setting.
Russia is because of maintain the occasion in September, with a winter version deliberate for 2026. Russian media studies recommend tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} shall be paid in prize cash because the nation makes an attempt to counter its rising isolation in worldwide sports activities.
The IOC has authorised the participation of Russian sportsmen and girls on this yr’s Olympics in Paris solely below a impartial banner and given that they didn’t help Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
“The IOC notes that, opposite to the Elementary Rules of the Olympic Constitution and the resolutions by the UN Common Meeting, the Russian authorities intends to organise purely politically motivated sports activities occasions in Russia,” the IOC stated in an announcement.
“The Russian authorities created and funded the ‘Worldwide Friendship Affiliation’ (IFA), so as to host the summer season and winter ‘Friendship Video games’,” it stated.
Russia’s announcement final yr got here with their athletes and people of ally Belarus having been largely frozen out of worldwide competitors by federations within the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “particular army operation”.
The IOC, which banned the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in October for recognising regional Olympic councils for Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine – Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, has allowed athletes from Russia and Belarus to qualify for and compete on the Paris 2024 Olympics this yr.
However they’ll accomplish that as impartial athletes, with out flags or anthems and symbols. Russia plans to carry the primary version of the summer season Friendship Video games in September with the winter version deliberate for 2026 in Sochi, web site of the 2014 winter Olympics.
“For this objective, the Russian authorities has launched a really intensive diplomatic offensive by having authorities delegations and ambassadors, in addition to ministerial and different governmental authorities, approaching governments all over the world,” the IOC stated.
“To make their purely political motivation much more apparent, they’re intentionally circumventing the sports activities organisations of their goal international locations. It’s a cynical try by the Russian Federation to politicise sport,” the IOC stated.
It stated Russia’s doping monitor document and its anti-doping company’s non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Company code was additionally affecting the integrity of any sports activities competitors held there.
“The IOC strongly urges all stakeholders of the Olympic Motion and all governments to reject any participation in, and help of, any initiative that intends to completely politicise worldwide sport,” the IOC stated.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sports activities issued an announcement welcoming “the honest stance” of the IOC, however urged the Olympic physique to now take a decisive step towards Russian and Belarusian athletes.
“We urge the exclusion of athletes holding Russian or Belarusian citizenship from taking part in any worldwide competitions, together with the Olympic Video games, in any standing,” learn the assertion signed by Ukraine’s performing Sport Minister Matvii Bidnyi.