MOSCOW, May 22. President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach expressed hope that the countries opposing the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international tournaments would listen to the G7.
Earlier, the G7 leaders said that they respect the independence of sports organizations, but at the same time they are aimed at preventing the participation of Russian or Belarusian athletes in competitions as representatives of these countries.
«The IOC warmly welcomes the G7's support for the autonomy of sports and the IOC's recommendation that athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports only participate (in tournaments) as individual neutral athletes. This commitment to the autonomy of sports organizations comes at a crucial moment when several governments threaten it. Therefore, we are very grateful to the leaders of the G7 for their unequivocal statement,» Bach was quoted by the IOC website.
«The IOC sincerely hopes that these countries will take the G7's statement seriously so that international sport can once again fulfill its mission of bringing the world together in a peaceful competition,» the IOC chief added.
Earlier it was reported that the authorities of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine called on the IOC executive committee to make a recommendation not to allow Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
On March 28, the IOC Executive Committee recommended that international federations allow Russian and Belarusian athletes who did not support the NWO to participate in international competitions as neutral athletes, while proposing not to consider teams from Russia as participants in international competitions in team sports. The IOC Executive Board also recommended that athletes associated with the armed forces or security agencies should not be allowed to compete.