(Bombay) International Athletics Federation President Sebastian Coe said on Saturday that the International Olympic Committee had made the “only possible decision” in suspending the Russian National Olympic Committee.
The IOC’s decision, taken on Thursday at its 141st session in Bombay, came after the Russian Olympic Committee (NOC) placed several organizations in occupied Ukrainian regions under its authority. A suspension which, according to the IOC, has no consequences on the possible presence of Russian athletes under a neutral banner at the Paris Games, which will be decided “at the appropriate time”.
“I think it was the right decision,” Sebastian Coe said Saturday at a news conference in Mumbai about the NOC’s suspension. “I think it was the only possible decision for them [the IOC].”
“Our position within World Athletics is clear and has been clear on a number of issues since 2015,” he added.
At the end of 2015, the Russian Athletics Federation (RUSAF) was suspended for having established an institutionalized doping system and its athletes forced to compete in major world competitions under a neutral banner. Rusaf was reinstated in March 2023.
In March 2022, just after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the International Athletics Federation excluded Russian and Belarusian athletes, coaches and officials, following the ban decided by the IOC.
The IOC made an about-face at the end of March 2023 by recommending their reintegration under a neutral banner, on an individual basis, and as long as they had not “actively supported the war in Ukraine”.
Most international federations have gradually followed suit, each according to their own timetable, with the notable exception of the International Athletics Federation, one of the main Olympic sports.
