The International Olympic Committee has “reviewed and verified” 15 Russian and 17 Belarusian athletes participating in the Paris Olympics. The International Olympic Committee believes that the athletes from Russia and Belarus don’t have any ties to the Russian military.
Global Rights Compliance provided the IOC with evidence showing that approximately two-thirds of the “neutral” participants in the games are not neutral at all. However, the committee ignored its warnings.
A total of 10 Russians and 7 Belarusians were allowed to compete in the 2024 Olympics despite violating IOC criteria, according to an open-source investigation.
The Global Rights Compliance report shows that Yelena Vesnina, a Russian tennis player, liked online posts about Russian soldiers”military exploits’ in Ukraine, including material with the Russian military symbol ‘Z’.
Alexei Korovashkov, a Russian canoeist, belongs to a sports organisation closely linked to the Russian security apparatus. Reuters also discovered that Korovashkov published and later deleted posts on social media in 2023 and 2024, in which he used grossly offensive language against Ukrainians.
All three of these athletes refuse to talk to journalists, blocking online the most persistent requests.
Russia’s issues with the International Olympic Committee are not solely due to political bias. Back in 2017, the Olympic Committee suspended Russia’s participation in the competition due to revelations of regular doping. The Court of Arbitration for Sport formally condemned the country in December 2020, temporarily suspending the Russian delegation.
Nevertheless, Russian athletes participated in the 2018 Winter Games in Seoul under the status of “Olympic Athletes of Russia”. They participated in the Games in Tokyo (2021) and Beijing (2022) as the “Olympic Committee of Russia” (OCR), displaying a flag and anthem that differed from the official ones.
Many high-ranking officials of international organisations justify themselves with the hypocritical argument that sport is outside politics. And yet, despite the sanctions, the aggressor continues to offer generous bribes.
