MADRID, 12 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Board of Directors of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) this Thursday suspended the Russian Olympic Committee with immediate effect for having taken over organizations from Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, cities whose sports entities are under the authority of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee.
This was indicated by the IOC on its website, recalling “the unilateral decision” adopted by the Russian Olympic Committee on October 5 to “include among its members” these sports organizations. “It constitutes a violation of the Olympic Charter because it violates the territorial integrity of the Olympic Committee of Ukraine,” the press release added.
“The Russian Olympic Committee no longer has the right to function as a National Olympic Committee (NOC), as defined in the Olympic Charter, and cannot receive any funding from the Olympic Movement,” the IOC said in its press release.
“As stated in the IOC position and recommendations of March 28, 2023, which remain in full force, the IOC reserves the right to decide on the participation of individual neutral athletes with Russian passports in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games,” the note added.
The IOC Board of Directors also noted that “it reserves the right to take any decision or additional measure depending on the development of this situation”, which occurred as a result of the current war in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022 with the invasion of the Russian Army.