Individual Neutral Athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics | |
---|---|
IOC code | AIN |
in Paris, France 26 July 2024 – 11 August 2024 | |
Competitors | 11 in 4 sports |
Medals Ranked 0th |
|
Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |
Other related appearances | |
Russian Empire (1900–1912) Soviet Union (1952–1988) Unified Team (1992) Russia (1994–2016) ROC (2020–2022) Belarus (1996–2020) |
Individual Neutral Athletes is the name used to represent approved Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the nations' previous designations due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2022. The IOC country code is AIN, after the French name Athlètes Individuels Neutres.
The team is disallowed from using the neutral Olympic flag and Olympic anthem, and instead is required to use a white flag depicting a colorless AIN emblem assigned by the IOC. The IOC states that they will decide on a different neutral anthem "at a later date."[1]
-
The AIN flag assigned by the IOC
Background
Timeline
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, its third violation of the Olympic Truce, the IOC banned Russia and Belarus[a] and recommended that other international sporting organizers do the same on 28 February 2022.[2] Accordingly, Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from the 2022 Winter Paralympics.
On 25 January 2023, the IOC published a statement supporting the idea that Russian and Belarusian athletes could be allowed to compete as neutrals, as long as they did not "actively" support the war and as long as Russian and Belarusian flags, anthems, colors, and names were disallowed (thus banning the alternate designations used by Russia in 2018 and 2020).[3]
On 28 March 2023, the IOC narrowed the requirements down to individual athletes, disallowing any teams of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing. For events organized by international federations other than the IOC, the IOC recommended to use no flag at all (or if not possible, the event's flag or the IF's flag) and the event's anthem or the IF's anthem.[4] The IOC also donated $5 million (USD) to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.[5]
On 22 September 2023, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned the Russian flag and anthem from international sporting events for a second time[b] due to Russian legislation and RUSADA failing to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code, overlapping with the Olympic Truce ban. WADA announced that the ban would not be lifted until "the non-conformities related to national legislation are corrected in full."[6][7]
On 12 October 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee until further notice, overlapping with the other two bans, due to its violation of the Olympic Charter due to annexing the Olympic Councils of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk into the Russian Olympic Committee.[8][9] The Russian Olympic Committee responded that the IOC had not issued a similar suspension after the Russian Olympic Committee annexed a sporting entity in Crimea in 2014, to which the IOC replied "this argument was a little bit, 'Why did you not sanction us already, earlier?'."[10]
On 8 December 2023, the IOC published the AIN flag, officially stated that it would apply to the Paris 2024 games, and stipulated that official medal tables and tallies would exclude any AIN collective results.
Controversy
Ukrainian officials have criticized the IOC for not banning Russia despite it thrice violating the Olympic Truce, while others have alternately criticized the IOC for applying rules against Russia that do not get applied against other countries.
Two statements in particular[citation needed] from the IOC have been called deceptive by Ukrainian officials: a statement that Russia should not be punished any more harshly than FR Yugoslavia in 1992, and a statement that the IOC should not act on the Russian invasion of Ukraine any differently from other ongoing armed conflicts.
The IOC has compared Russia to FR Yugoslavia in 1992, arguing that FR Yugoslavia was allowed to compete as neutrals despite being under internationally-binding United Nations sanctions, therefore Russia (which is not under internationally-binding sanctions) should be allowed to compete as neutrals. Ukraine counters that FR Yugoslavia did not break the Olympic Truce, and that Russia has the power to veto its own sanctions at the United Nations.
In response to the IOC asserting that other ongoing armed conflicts have not seen their belligerents banned from the Olympics, Ukraine has countered that almost all of the ones listed by the IOC do not involve two different nations as belligerents, and of the ones that do, none have broken the Olympic Truce except Russia.
The stipulation that athletes must not have actively supported the war has also been criticized as ill-defined; for example, Russian IOC member Yelena Isinbayeva was cleared as "not linked with the Russian military and not supporting the invasion", despite being pictured in military uniform and receiving military promotions, and despite pro-Russian citizens expressing anger at Isinbayeva after she claimed in defense that she had "never been in the service of the armed forces".[11]
Conversely, political professor Jules Boykoff has stated that Israel's annexations of Palestine's territory violate the Olympic Charter in the same way as Russia.[12]
Competitors
The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games.
Sport | Men | Women | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Cycling | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Rowing | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Swimming | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Wrestling | 5 | 1 | 6 |
Total | 7 | 4 | 11 |
Cycling
Road
Individual Neutral Athlete entered one male and two female rider to compete in the road race events at the Olympic. Individual Neutral Athlete secured those quota through the UCI Nation Ranking.[13]
Athlete | Event | Time | Rank |
---|---|---|---|
Men's road race | |||
Men's time trial | |||
Women's road race | |||
Women's time trial |
Rowing
Individual Neutral Athlete rowers qualified boats in each of the following classes through the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
- Men
Athlete | Event | Heats | Repechage | Semifinals | Final | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | ||
Yauheni Zalaty | Single sculls |
Swimming
Individual Neutral Athlete swimmers achieved the entry standards in the following events for Paris 2024 (a maximum of two swimmers under the Olympic Qualifying Time (OST) and potentially at the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT)):[14]
Athlete | Event | Heat | Semifinal | Final | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | ||
Anastasiya Shkurdai | Women's 100 m backstroke | ||||||
Women's 200 m backstroke |
Wrestling
Individual Neutral Athlete qualified six wrestlers for each of the following classes into the Olympic competition. All of them qualified for the games by virtue of top five results through the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.[15][16]
Key:
- VT (ranking points: 5–0 or 0–5) – Victory by fall.
- VB (ranking points: 5–0 or 0–5) – Victory by injury (VF for forfeit, VA for withdrawal or disqualification)
- PP (ranking points: 3–1 or 1–3) – Decision by points – the loser with technical points.
- PO (ranking points: 3–0 or 0–3) – Decision by points – the loser without technical points.
- ST (ranking points: 4–0 or 0–4) – Great superiority – the loser without technical points and a margin of victory of at least 8 (Greco-Roman) or 10 (freestyle) points.
- SP (ranking points: 4–1 or 1–4) – Technical superiority – the loser with technical points and a margin of victory of at least 8 (Greco-Roman) or 10 (freestyle) points.
- Freestyle
Athlete | Event | Round of 16 | Quarterfinal | Semifinal | Repechage | Final / BM | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Opposition Result |
Opposition Result |
Opposition Result |
Opposition Result |
Opposition Result |
Rank | ||
Zaur Uguev | Men's −57 kg | ||||||
Shamil Mamedov | Men's −65 kg | ||||||
Zaurbek Sidakov | Men's −74 kg | ||||||
Abdulla Kurbanov | Men's −125 kg | ||||||
Vanesa Kaladzinskaya | Women's −53 kg |
- Greco-Roman
Athlete | Event | Round of 16 | Quarterfinal | Semifinal | Repechage | Final / BM | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Opposition Result |
Opposition Result |
Opposition Result |
Opposition Result |
Opposition Result |
Rank | ||
Abubakar Khaslakhanau | Men's −97 kg |
Notes
- ^ Belarus provided military support to Russia and also allowed Russia to use its territory to stage part of the invasion.
- ^ The first was a four-year ban starting 9 December 2019 due to the Russian doping scandal, which was reduced on appeal to a two-year ban starting 17 December 2020, expiring by 18 December 2022.
References
- ^ https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2023/12/principles-of-participation-for-individual-neutral-athletes.pdf
- ^ https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-eb-recommends-no-participation-of-russian-and-belarusian-athletes-and-officials
- ^ https://olympics.com/ioc/news/statement-on-solidarity-with-ukraine-sanctions-against-russia-and-belarus-and-the-status-of-athletes
- ^ https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2023/03/Participation-for-Individual-Neutral-Athletes-Personnel-with-a-Russian-or-Belarusian-Passport.pdf
- ^ https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-issues-recommendations-for-international-federations-and-international-sports-event-organisers
- ^ https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141034/wada-new-consequences-rusada
- ^ https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141718/wada-rusada-sanctions-cas-oct-23
- ^ https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-executive-board-suspends-russian-olympic-committee-with-immediate-effect
- ^ https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141665/roc-suspended-ioc
- ^ https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141699/roc-claims-annexations-crimea
- ^ https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141699/roc-claims-annexations-crimea
- ^ "Russia says International Olympic Committee is giving Israel a pass on Gaza". NPR. 8 November 2023.
- ^ "Road cycling at París 2024: Quota distribution for next Olympic Games decided following publication of UCI World Ranking by Nations". International Olympic Committee. 18 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ^ "Paris 2024 – Swimming Qualification". World Aquatics. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
- ^ "Freestyle Wrestling: 2024 Paris Olympic Games Qualified Nations". United World Wrestling. 19 September 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
- ^ "1st Phase - 2023 Senior World Championships - Belgrade (SRB)" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Retrieved 11 October 2023.