North Korea was formally suspended from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by the IOC on Wednesday as punishment for refusing to ship a crew to the Tokyo Video games citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Particular person athletes from North Korea who qualify to compete in Beijing may nonetheless be accepted by a separate resolution sooner or later, Bach stated.
The suspension marks a steep drop in North Korea’s Olympic standing for the reason that 2018 Winter Video games in South Korea, the place the Worldwide Olympic Committee tried to assist a diplomatic breakthrough.
Athletes from the Korean neighbours marched collectively within the opening ceremony at Pyeongchang and joined collectively in a girls’s ice hockey crew.
Exclusion might be prolonged
North Korea withdrew its crew in April from the Tokyo Olympics citing a necessity to guard athletes from the “world public well being disaster brought on by COVID-19.”
“They have been violating the Olympic Constitution and didn’t fulfill their obligation as said within the Olympic Constitution to take part,” Bach stated at a information convention after an IOC govt board assembly.
The North Korean Olympic committee is suspended by means of 2022 and the exclusion might be prolonged, he stated.
North Korea despatched 10 rivals to the 2018 Winter Video games, none in 2014 at Sochi, Russia, and two to Vancouver in 2010.