RUSSIA’S APPEAL AGAINST its suspension by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday.
The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in October last year for violating the territorial integrity of the membership of Ukraine by recognising illegally annexed territories.
Russian and Belarusian athletes are permitted to participate at the Paris Games as neutrals, outside of team events and as long as they did not actively support the war on Ukraine.
Russia denounced the conditions placed on its athletes as “discriminatory”, but said athletes who meet the criteria would go to Paris.
The IOC moved to suspend the ROC last October after it included the regional sports organisations of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia — which are under the authority of Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee — as its members.
The ROC reacted at the time of its suspension by denouncing it as “yet another counterproductive, politically motivated decision”.
On Friday, CAS ruled that the IOC’s decision “did not breach the principles of legality, equality, predictability or proportionality” and rejected the appeal.
CAS’s ruling is binding, although the ROC could choose to file an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.
The IOC said it was “pleased” at the CAS ruling at its Lausanne headquarters, and said that the ROC’s decision to include organisations under Ukraine’s NOC “constitutes a breach of the Olympic Charter”.
