Athletes must be allowed to compete without restrictions: Russian Olympic chief

Moscow: In the midst of a rising controversy around their participation in the 2024 Paris Games, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee stated on Tuesday that athletes from Russia cannot be subjected to different conditions than those of other nations.

"Russians must participate exactly on the same conditions as all other athletes. Any additional conditions or criteria are unwelcome, especially any that have political overtones, which are completely unacceptable for the Olympic movement," Stanislav Pozdnyakov said, according to Russian news agencies.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced last week that it was looking into a "pathway" for Russian athletes to compete in the summer Olympics next year, most likely as neutral competitors rather than representing their country.

Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February of last year, Russia and its ally Belarus have been excluded from the majority of Olympic sports. Belarus allowed its territory to be used as a staging area for the offensive, AFP reported.

A presidential advisor in Ukraine immediately reacted negatively to that announcement by calling the IOC a "promoter of war."

If Russians are permitted to compete, Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris Games.

Pozdnyakov stated that his group appreciated the IOC's efforts to permit Russian athletes to compete.

"But as for additional conditions, we strongly disagree. The Olympic Charter states that all athletes must participate on an equal footing," he added.

Russia's participation in the Paris Olympics, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, would amount to demonstrating that "terror can allegedly be something acceptable."

Additionally, last week, Zelensky said that he had invited IOC President Thomas Bach to the frontline city of Bakhmut in Ukraine, "so that he can see for himself that neutrality does not exist."

The Central Sports Club of the Russian Army, or CSKA, claimed 45 of the 71 medals won by Russian participants at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, according to Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.

"The army that commits atrocities, kills, rapes, and loots," Kuleba said. "This is whom the ignorant IOC wants to put under (the) white flag allowing (them) to compete."

However, the Olympic Council of Asia this week extended an invitation to Russian and Belarusian competitors to participate in this year's Asian Games, claiming that "all athletes, regardless of their nationality or the passport they hold, should be able to compete in sports competitions".

That was an important decision since it would enable athletes from those two nations to meet the requirements for qualifying to compete in the Olympics in Paris.

The international federations for each Olympic sport have "the sole authority for its international competitions," the IOC reaffirmed last week.