IOC’s Failure to Exclude Russian War Supporters Tarnishes Olympic Integrity

The Paris Olympics, meant to symbolize peace and unity, were overshadowed by the The International Olympic Committee’s failure to prevent Russian athletes, many of whom support the war against Ukraine, from competing. Despite public declarations of neutrality, several Russian athletes with connections to the Russian military or open support for the war participated under a neutral banner.

When Rus­sia launched its full-scale inva­sion of Ukraine in Feb­ru­ary 2022, glob­al lead­ers, orga­ni­za­tions, and coun­tries quick­ly con­demned the aggres­sion. The Inter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC) was among them, pub­licly denounc­ing Rus­si­a’s actions and estab­lish­ing a Sol­i­dar­i­ty Fund to sup­port Ukrain­ian ath­letes. How­ev­er, as the 2024 Olympics approached, the IOC’s actions did not match its words.

The IOC ini­tial­ly imposed restric­tions on Russ­ian ath­letes, stat­ing that those active­ly sup­port­ing the war could not com­pete. Addi­tion­al­ly, ath­letes con­nect­ed to the Russ­ian mil­i­tary or nation­al secu­ri­ty agen­cies were to be barred. Fur­ther­more, Russ­ian ath­letes could only par­tic­i­pate as indi­vid­ual neu­trals, and they were exclud­ed from the open­ing and clos­ing cer­e­monies.

Yet, despite these mea­sures, the IOC fell short of enforc­ing its own rules. Human rights group Glob­al Rights Com­pli­ance found that 10 Russ­ian ath­letes had vio­lat­ed the neu­tral­i­ty rules by open­ly sup­port­ing the inva­sion of Ukraine. The IOC, how­ev­er, ignored this evi­dence and allowed these ath­letes to com­pete.

The Ukrainian Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also called for the exclusion of Russian athletes, citing their connections to the war. The IOC disregarded these pleas as well.

As a result, some Russ­ian ath­letes used the Games to pro­mote their war-sup­port­ing views. Ten­nis play­ers Mir­ra Andree­va and Diana Shnaider, who won sil­ver medals, were among those linked to sup­port­ing the war. Andree­va has pub­licly liked social media posts endors­ing the inva­sion, while Shnaider dodged ques­tions about Russia’s neu­tral­i­ty dur­ing the Games.

Oth­er Russ­ian ath­letes, like cyclist Aly­ona Ivanchenko and ten­nis play­er Ele­na Ves­ni­na, dis­played sim­i­lar sup­port for the war. Canoeist Alek­sei Korovashkov, with ties to Russ­ian secu­ri­ty agen­cies, also com­pet­ed. These ath­letes, rather than being neu­tral, were used by the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment as pro­pa­gan­da tools to show­case Russia’s strength.

Image: Ves­ni­na with a birth­day mes­sage to putin. Pho­to from open sources.

By allowing these athletes to compete, the IOC failed to uphold its principles, enabling war supporters to participate in an event that should stand for peace.

Mov­ing for­ward, the IOC must ful­ly bar Russ­ian ath­letes with any con­nec­tion to the war from future com­pe­ti­tions. This deci­sive action would send a clear mes­sage con­demn­ing Russia’s ongo­ing aggres­sion in Ukraine and pre­vent the nor­mal­iza­tion of such behav­ior on the world stage. If the IOC does not take stronger action, it risks allow­ing author­i­tar­i­an regimes to use the Olympics as a plat­form for pro­pa­gan­da, under­min­ing the integri­ty of the Games and the val­ues they are meant to rep­re­sent.

Main pho­to cred­it: Artur Widak/NurPhoto