MOSCOW, November 25, Vasily Bogdanov. President of the All-Russian Athletic Federation Athletics (ARAF) Petr Ivanov told reporters that the World Athletics Association (World Athletics) has not yet spoken about the participation of athletes in the Friendship Games.
The Friendship Games are planned to be held from September 15 to 29, 2024 in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. Earlier, the Director General of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Olivier Niggli, said that Russia does not have the right to host the World Friendship Games due to the lack of compliance status of RUSADA, and the head of WADA, Witold Banka, threatened that the possible participation of signatories of the WADA code in the Friendship Games could lead to consequences. The President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov said that neither the IOC nor WADA have the moral right to prohibit Russia from hosting the Friendship Games.
“»The International Athletics Federation has not yet spoken out on the issue of the possibility of athletes participating in the Friendship Games. We are in contact with World Athletics. We recently received a letter from them, which reflected their position on developing criteria for the admission of Russians to international competitions “It is important for us that the working group has been formed and is working,” Ivanov said.
In March 2023, the World Athletics Council accepted the recommendation of the working group and agreed to restore the full status of ARAF, but extended the suspension of athletes from Russia and Belarus from competitions under the auspices of World Athletics “for the foreseeable future” due to the situation in Ukraine.