2024-07-20 00:10:23
The IOC announced that the invitations on July 26 Fifteen Russian and 16 Belarusian athletes were accepted to compete under a neutral flag at the upcoming Paris Olympic Games.
After the 2022 Russia attacked Ukraine in February, the athletes of these two countries were expelled from the world sports arena, but the IOC made sure that they could gradually return under a neutral flag and under certain strict conditions.
The Hague-based human rights fund Global Rights Compliance said in its report that ten out of 15 Russians were found to have violated the “participation principles” of neutral athletes.
“Despite clear evidence of violations presented by the Global Rights Compliance Foundation, the IOC has failed to enforce its own rules,” the human rights group said.
The IOC told AFP news agency it could not comment on individual cases and review panel decisions.
“She performed the review of the athletes in accordance with the decision of the IOC Executive Board and established principles. We can’t add anything else.”
A report published on Thursday states that in 2022 In March, the Russian cyclist Aliona “liked” a post published on the social network with a photo of the dictator Joseph Stalin and the inscription “A truce with the enemy is possible only after its destruction”.
Cyclist Tamara Dronova was found to have violated two rules: her ties to national security agencies and her public display of support for war, the report said.
Rower Olesia Romasenko belongs to the Central Army Sports Club (CASK), a Russian sports body under the Ministry of Defense. “Empty Talks”
Other Russian athletes mentioned in the report include rower Alexei Korovashkov, swimmer Evgeniy Somov, springboard gymnast Angela Bladtseva and tennis players Mira Andreyeva, Pavel Kotov, Diana Shnaider and Elena Vesnina.
Vesnina “liked” posts about Russian soldiers’ “battlefield achievements” — killing Ukrainians — as well as posts showing the war symbol “Z,” according to the report.
Several of the 16 Belarusian athletes have also violated the eligibility rules.
Neither the Russian nor the Belarusian Olympic Committees have yet commented on this information.
“If the IOC claims that its goal is to ‘create a better world through sport’, then the IOC must take steps to ensure that it and its affiliated organizations do not engage in mere lip service in terms of universal ethics and human rights,” the foundation’s Global Rights Compliance said. Chairman Wayne Jordash.
The group said it would present its findings to the IOC’s corporate partners, which include big names such as Airbnb, Coca Cola, Visa, Deloitte, Panasonic and Carrefour, adding that “they can to unknowingly participate in the support of Russia’s criminal military actions.”
After the full-scale invasion began in Ukraine, about 450 Ukrainian athletes have already died on the battlefield.
In order to receive an invitation to the Games, “neutral individual athletes” who had achieved good qualifying results had to pass another check by international sports federations and then by the IOC to ensure that they were not actively supporting the war in Ukraine and were not affiliated with their countries’ armed forces.
2024-07-20 00:10:23