“No Clear Way:” Senior IOC Member Casts Doubt on Russia Reinstatement for 2024 Olympics

“No Clear Way:” Senior IOC Member Casts Doubt on Russia Reinstatement for 2024 Olympics

Former International Olympic Committee vice president Sir Craig Reedie this week warned that Russia and Belarus might not find themselves back in the international sporting community before the Paris Olympics in 2024.

The nations are banned by many international sporting bodies – including FINA, through at least the end of 2022 – due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Belarus has been complicit as a staging area for Russian forces.

The bans will soon spill into qualification events for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Reintegrating the belligerent nations will not be easy, in the eyes of Reedie, who was the head of the British Olympic Committee from 1992-2005 and served as the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency from 2014-19. At age 81, the Scot is an honorary member of the IOC, after serving a four-year Vice President term.

“I’m afraid a decision is going to have to be taken on what happens to each of these two countries,” Reedie told the British press on Monday. “And my guess is that the general feeling would be that they should not qualify. I think most people are struggling with how we could achieve some degree of representation. At the moment, there is no clear way to do it. Therefore, you maintain the status quo.”

The IOC recommended in February that Russian and Belarusian athletes not compete in international events, a directive conveniently floated a week after the IOC concluded its Winter Games in Beijing. Many sporting bodies have followed suit in varying degrees, from moving events out of Russia to a stop on Russian and Belarusian athletes.

It’s an interesting perspective from Reedie in particular, given his history on the matter. He was in charge of WADA during 2016 when it published the McLaren Report, which brought to light Russia’s subversion of anti-doping procedures at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. It was under Reedie’s oversight that the sleight of hand of banning Russia but permitting Russian athletes who proved their innocence was concocted. Reedie was pilloried for those decisions in 2016, which softened an initial call to ban Russian athletes from the 2020 Tokyo and 2022 Beijing Olympics.

One Olympic cycle later, he’s bullish about Russian athletes facing real consequences at the 2024 Olympics.

“There’s a real issue for the federations, who have a clear instruction which they’ve agreed to that they won’t invite Russians and Belarusians to take part in events,” Reedie said.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use