The majority of Russian and Belarusian athletes, including tennis players, swimmers and cyclists, participating in this month’s Olympics, have violated the neutrality rules they are obliged to follow as a result of the war in Ukraine, lawyers claim.
Global Rights Compliance (GRC), a not-for-profit specialising in international humanitarian and criminal law, says that 10 out of 15 Russians and seven of 16 Belarusians competing in Paris have breached the code by indicating their support for the war on Ukraine or through their links to the armed forces.
Following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled that Russian athletes would not be allowed to compete in Paris 2024 under their country’s flag or anthem. The same applies to athletes from Belarus, which has aided the invasion. But in January 2023, the IOC announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes”, under “strict eligibility conditions”.
GRC has compiled a dossier based on open-source information that lists violations of the neutrality rules by 17 of the 33 Russian and Belarusian athletes who have been declared eligible and accepted an invitation by the IOC to participate in the Paris games.
They include a Russian tennis star who reportedly “liked” posts about “military feats” of Russian soldiers killing Ukrainians and posts displaying the pro-war “Z” symbol.
A cyclist also allegedly violated rules by “liking” posts questioning Ukraine’s right to exist and supporting the annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk, while another tennis player “liked” a post that appears to anticipate the funeral of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, GRC claims.
Jeremy Pizzi, legal adviser at the human rights non-profit, said that from a “moral viewpoint” it was “unconscionable” to ask Ukrainian athletes, some of whom may have experienced the killing of friends, family or fellow athletes, “to share that space with athletes who have expressed support for these kinds of actions”.
He added: “From a legal viewpoint, the IOC effectively holds that these neutrality rules should be applied … and then in practice, completely ignores [them] and acts negligently in respect to upholding those principles. It’s breaking its own rules.”
It is thought that more than 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded and 30,000 civilians died since the illegal invasion began.
GRC says the level of support for the war among Russian athletes is probably just “the tip of the iceberg” and that “social media scrubbing” means the true number of violators is likely to be much higher.
Wayne Jordash KC, GRC president, said: “The IOC is turning a blind eye to the involvement of Russian and Belarusian athletes who have demonstrated their support for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. This is not only a violation of the UN Charter, but it continues to punish Ukraine’s innocent men, women and children with a daily catalogue of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Mr Pizzi said his organisation had approached the IOC with its findings at the end of May. Despite an initial response on 19 June acknowledging the group’s concerns, he said the IOC took no action and failed to respond to several follow-up communications.
“We came back to them… telling them we’ve actually found multiple violations for the athletes who are now publicly declared eligible, telling them, ‘you really need to rectify that quickly’.
“And from then on they ignored us after we kept repeatedly sending the messages. They essentially shut the door at that point.”
He added: “It’s not too late. I do hope there will be changes. It’s not hard for the IOC to go back on their decision and publicly say, actually, we made a slight mistake, that these athletes can’t be eligible.”
An IOC spokesperson told i: “We cannot comment on individual cases and the decisions of the Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel (AINERP). It has reviewed the athletes in accordance with the IOC EB decision and the Principles Relating to the Implementation of the Participation for Individual Neutral Athletes and their Support Personnel with a Russian or Belarusian Passport at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. We have nothing further to add.”