The Russian Olympic Committee denounced on Friday the confirmation by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) of its suspension by the IOC, describing this measure as “unprecedented discrimination” against its athletes, subject to “humiliating criteria” to be able to participate in the Olympics 2024. Accusing the CAS of having “ignored the numerous legal arguments” invoked by Russia, the Russian Olympic Committee accused in a press release the body based in Lausanne, Switzerland, of acting as a “political instrument” in the service Westerners. The CAS “has long lost its objectivity in everything that concerns Russia,” criticized the Russian organization, citing “sporting discrimination against Russians which has reached unprecedented proportions.”
She also accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC), whose decision she challenged before the CAS, of “doing everything possible to minimize the number of (Russian) athletes invited” to participate in the Paris Olympics, and of imposing on them “humiliating criteria”. Russian and Belarusian athletes can appear at the 2024 Olympics provided that they have not supported the Russian offensive in Ukraine, and must compete under a neutral banner.
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) also warned Russian sports federations on Friday that compliance with these IOC demands could “constitute a violation of Russian legislation”, threatening them with “legal consequences” and “other negative consequences of such consent.” The suspension now confirmed against the ROC was added to a range of sanctions taken by the IOC from the end of February 2022, just after the start of the conflict in Ukraine: ban on any international competition on Russian soil as well as in allied Belarus, and all the official symbols of the two countries on the fields and world podiums.
