IOC said non-admission of athletes to tournaments will harm Ukrainian community

National governments should not decide which athletes can compete in international competitions – as stated in the press service of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), speaking about the ban on Ukrainian athletes to compete in tournaments together with athletes from Belarus and Russia,sport5.by reports

As reported, the Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sports banned Ukrainian athletes from participating in competitions involving athletes from Russia and Belarus.

The IOC press service, commenting on this news, noted that this raises serious questions about the autonomy of Ukrainian sports. “If implemented, the decision would hurt only the Ukrainian athlete community and national sports federations and in no way impact special military operation. The IOC has always maintained that it is not up to governments to decide which athletes can participate in which international competitions. Such a decision also goes against the position of a number of Ukrainian athletes and other members of the Ukrainian Olympic community,” the statement reads.

“The IOC has always followed and will also follow in this case its policy to protect the athletes. Therefore, if this was implemented, the athletes who want to compete and would lose the support of their national sports federation and their national Olympic committee because of government interference, could count on the direct support of the Olympic Movement’s Solidarity Fund for the Olympic community of Ukraine and the athletes’ support programmes of the IOC,” the International Olympic Committee added.