THE IOC RECOGNIZES THE BELARUSIAN NOC ELECTIONS

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially recognized the results of the Belarusian National Olympic Committee (NOC) elections, reaffirming Viktar Lukashenka, son of the country’s illegitimate ruler, as its president.

This deci­sion rais­es seri­ous con­cerns both about the inde­pen­dence of sports gov­er­nance in Belarus and the broad­er impli­ca­tions for Belaru­sian ath­letes.

The recog­ni­tion comes just a month before the IOC Pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, where Juan Anto­nio Sama­ranch Jr., one of the fron­trun­ners, is direct­ly inter­est­ed in secur­ing Vik­tar Lukashenka’s vote. This rais­es ques­tions about whether polit­i­cal deals are being made at the expense of fun­da­men­tal Olympic val­ues.

Mean­while, hun­dreds of Belaru­sian ath­letes remain in exile or face per­se­cu­tion for tak­ing a stand against the Lukashen­ka regime. Many have been stripped of their right to com­pete, detained, or forced to flee the coun­try, while the NOC, under Lukashenka’s con­trol, con­tin­ues to oper­ate as an exten­sion of the government’s repres­sive poli­cies.

This move by the IOC under­scores a trou­bling real­i­ty: while inter­na­tion­al sports orga­ni­za­tions advo­cate for fair play and neu­tral­i­ty, they often turn a blind eye to bla­tant polit­i­cal inter­fer­ence when it suits them. The Belaru­sian regime has weaponized sports for years, using the Olympic move­ment to legit­imize itself while silenc­ing dis­sent­ing voic­es.

Ath­letes should not have to choose between their careers and their prin­ci­ples. The inter­na­tion­al sports com­mu­ni­ty must rec­og­nize that stand­ing with Belaru­sian ath­letes means more than sym­bol­ic gestures—it requires action. The IOC and fed­er­a­tions must ensure that Belaru­sian ath­letes who oppose repres­sion are pro­tect­ed and giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­pete under neu­tral sta­tus, rather than being rep­re­sent­ed by a com­pro­mised NOC.

At Ath­letes for Free­dom, we con­tin­ue to sup­port Belaru­sian ath­letes forced to leave their coun­try for speak­ing out. The fight for real Olympic val­ues, e.g., fair­ness, integri­ty, and human rights, must con­tin­ue.

#Ath­letes­For­Free­dom #Belarus #IOC #Human­Rights #Fair­Play