MOSCOW, Apr 22 The Ukrainian authorities have gone too far by issuing By decree banning Ukrainian athletes from competing with Russians, governments should not influence the ability of athletes to gain access to international tournaments, said James McLeod, director of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) department for relations with National Olympic Committees (NOCs).
Earlier, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine published an order on the official website, according to which Ukrainian athletes are prohibited from participating in competitions with Russians and Belarusians.
“You have already seen — and I want to address this — there were many harsh language from the government of Ukraine regarding the decision that was taken by the IOC Executive Committee. They went so far as to ban their athletes from participating in competitions in which there may be neutral athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport. They also threatened to stop funding these athletes,» McLeod was quoted as saying by Inside the Games.
“Obviously it looks to us like they have gone too far because athletes should be at the center of all our discussions and we don’t believe that decisions by governments, be it the governments of Ukraine, Russia or any other government, should influence on the ability of athletes to access international competition or funding, so this is an unfavorable position that we are in at the moment, but undoubtedly the IOC Executive Board will have to discuss again what is happening in this regard,» McLeod added.
On March 28, the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that international federations allow Russian and Belarusian athletes who did not support the SVO to participate in international competitions as neutral athletes. Following the recommendations of the IOC, the decision to allow athletes in neutral status was made by the World Taekwondo Federation (World Taekwondo) and the United World Wrestling (UWW). The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the International Triathlon Federation (World Triathlon), the International Union of Modern Pentathlon (UIPM) and the World Archery Federation (World Archery) also announced their readiness to return the Russians to international competitions. The Bureau of the International Aquatics Federation (World Aquatics) announced the creation of a working group to study the possibilities of participation of Russian or Belarusian athletes in tournaments.