Timeline
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which began shortly after the 2022 Winter Olympics, the IOC banned Russia and Belarus [b] and recommended that other international sporting organizers do the same on 28 February 2022. [8] 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, 2020 and 2022). [9]
On 28 March 2023, the IOC introduced the AIN name and narrowed the requirements down to individual athletes, disallowing any teams of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing. For events organized by an international federation (IF) other than the IOC, the IOC recommended using no flag at all (or if not possible, the event's flag, the IF's flag, or the letters "AIN") and the event's anthem or the IF's anthem. [10] Federations that did not have French as an official language still used the AIN name. [11] The IOC also donated $5 million to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. [12]
On 22 September 2023, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned the Russian flag and anthem from international sporting events for a second time [c] 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." [13] [14]
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 its inclusion of the regional Olympic Councils of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk into the Russian Olympic Committee. [15] [16] At the time of its violation of the Olympic Charter, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov had said he did not see any problems with the incorporation of the former Ukrainian regional IOCs into the Russian IOC. [17] The Russian Olympic Committee responded to its suspension by saying that the IOC had not issued a similar suspension after the Russian Olympic Committee annexed a sporting entity in Crimea in 2014, to which IOC President Thomas Bach remarked, "this argument was a little bit, 'Why did you not sanction us already, earlier?'" [18]
On 8 December 2023, the IOC published a "draft" version of the AIN flag depicting a colorless emblem on a white background, and stated that they would decide on a different neutral anthem at a later date. The IOC also officially stated that the AIN designation would apply to the Paris 2024 games, and that official medal rankings would exclude AIN. [7]
On 19 March 2024, the IOC updated the AIN flag to teal text and a teal background, [2] and published an instrumental anthem "produced solely for this purpose." [3] The IOC also stated that as independent athletes, AIN will not participate as a delegation during the parade of nations at the opening ceremony, but the athletes would still "be given the opportunity to experience the event". [19] [20]
Controversies
Ukrainian officials have criticized the IOC for not banning Russia despite it violating the Olympic Truce three times, while others have alternately criticized the IOC for applying rules against Russia which aren't applied against other countries. [21]
In particular, the requirement that athletes must not actively support the war has been described as "ineffectual". 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". [18] On 29 December 2023, an open letter signed by 261 Ukrainian athletes contained evidence that three of the six [22] Russian athletes cleared at that time to participate had in fact actively supported the war, such as by participating in a pro-war rally in March 2022, or starring in a propaganda video explicitly stating and drumming up support for the Russian military. [23]
A compromise suggestion by Poland, where Russians and Belarusians could compete if they were dissidents, was not acted upon by the IOC. [24]
In December 2023, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov directly threatened any Russian athlete who may choose to participate as a "neutral" at the 2024 Olympics, saying: "As the head of the ROC, I voice a clear position: ... We live in a free state... But... we strongly recommend that you thoroughly understand ... the extent and consequences of the personal responsibility assumed." [25]
In June 2024, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia for Tourism, Sport, Culture and Communications, stated that Russian athletes would not violate Russian law by competing in Paris as neutrals and encouraged them to participate. [26] However, despite Chernyshenko's encouragement, the Russian Wrestling Federation decided on 6 July to boycott the Games after most of its leading athletes were deemed ineligible to compete by the IOC. This followed the decision taken by the Russian Judo Federation over the same concerns. [27] [28]
The main Russian and Belarusian broadcasters (such as Belteleradio, Channel One Russia, Match TV, [29] and VGTRK) did not broadcast or acknowledge the Olympic and Paralympic Games, except for brief summaries and negative coverage as part of their criticism of the Western world. [30] [31] This is the first time since 1984 that there was no official coverage of the Games in the two former Soviet countries, when a similar approach was used during the Games in Los Angeles.
Many Russian newspapers and websites, along with Kremlin officials, also adopted a negative view of the Games by cherry picking and accentuating any flaw they could identify: for example, the media accentuated the crime and the "inconvenience" of the security measures, while the Russian Foreign Ministry complained about the weather and the inclusion of the LGBTQ community during the opening ceremony. [32]
The Associated Press noted on 27 July 2024 that Belarusian and Russian viewers depended on satellite channels and streaming services of neighbouring countries (such as Kazakhstan) to get reasonable coverage of the Games, [33] with the Moscow Times noting a rise in social media channels touting pirated streams to Belarusian and Russian viewers. [29] Without an official broadcaster in Russia, the IOC made their Olympics.com streaming service available to viewers in said country. [34]
Russian Empire (1900–1912)
Soviet Union (1952–1988)
Unified Team (1992)
ROC (2020–2022) 
Belarus (1996–2020)
