The delegation is banned from using the neutral Olympic flag and Olympic anthem, and will instead use a flag depicting a circular AIN emblem and a one-off instrumental anthem, both assigned by the IOC.[2] Individual neutral athletes must be first approved by each sport's international federation, and then by a special panel created by the IOC.[3] As individual athletes, the delegation will not take part in the parade of nations during the opening ceremony, nor be listed as a delegation in the official medal tables.
While the flag uses the singular wording "Individual Neutral Athlete", the IOC uses the plural wording "Individual Neutral Athletes" in prose.[4]
Background
The "draft" emblem of the AIN flag assigned by the IOC on 8 December 2023. The provisional flag was proposed to be white with the emblem.[5]
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the IOC banned Russia and Belarus[a] and recommended that other international sporting organizers do the same on 28 February 2022.[6] Accordingly, Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from the 2022 Winter Paralympics.
On 25 January 2023, the IOC published a statement supporting the idea that Russian and Belarusian athletes could be allowed to compete as neutrals, as long as they did not "actively" support the war and as long as Russian and Belarusian flags, anthems, colors, and names were disallowed (thus banning the alternate designations used by Russia in 2018 and 2020).[7]
On 28 March 2023, the IOC introduced the AIN name and narrowed the requirements down to individual athletes, disallowing any teams of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing. For events organized by international federations other than the IOC, the IOC recommended to use no flag at all (or if not possible, the event's flag, the IF's flag, or the letters "AIN") and the event's anthem or the IF's anthem.[8] Federations that did not have French as an official language still used the AIN name.[9] The IOC also donated $5 million to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.[10]
On 22 September 2023, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned the Russian flag and anthem from international sporting events for a second time[b] due to Russian legislation and RUSADA failing to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code, overlapping with the Olympic Truce ban. WADA announced that the ban would not be lifted until "the non-conformities related to national legislation are corrected in full."[11][12]
On 12 October 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee until further notice, overlapping with the other two bans, due to its violation of the Olympic Charter due to annexing the Olympic Councils of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk into the Russian Olympic Committee; at the time of its violation of the Olympic Charter, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov had said: "I don’t see any difficulties here."[13][14][15][16] The Russian Olympic Committee responded to its suspension by saying that the IOC had not issued a similar suspension after the Russian Olympic Committee annexed a sporting entity in Crimea in 2014, to which IOC President Thomas Bach remarked, "this argument was a little bit, 'Why did you not sanction us already, earlier?'"[17]
On 8 December 2023, the IOC published a "draft" version of the AIN flag depicting a colorless emblem on a white background, and stated that they would decide on a different neutral anthem at a later date. The IOC also officially stated that the AIN designation would apply to the Paris 2024 games, and that official medal tables would exclude AIN.[5]
On 19 March 2024, the IOC updated the AIN flag to teal text and a teal background,[18] and published an instrumental anthem "produced solely for this purpose."[2] The IOC also stated that as independent athletes, AIN will not participate as a delegation during the parade of nations at the opening ceremony, but the athletes would still "be given the opportunity to experience the event".[19][20]
Controversy
Ukrainian officials have criticized the IOC for not banning Russia despite it thrice violating the Olympic Truce, while others have alternately criticized the IOC for applying rules against Russia that do not get applied against other countries.[citation needed]
In particular, the requirement that athletes must not actively support the war has been described as "ineffectual". For example, Russian IOC member Yelena Isinbayeva was cleared as "not linked with the Russian military and not supporting the invasion", despite being pictured in military uniform and receiving military promotions, and despite pro-Russian citizens expressing anger at Isinbayeva after she claimed in defense that she had "never been in the service of the armed forces".[17] On 29 December 2023, an open letter signed by 261 Ukrainian athletes contained evidence that three of the six[21] Russian athletes cleared to participate had in fact actively supported the war, such as by participating in a pro-war rally in March 2022, or starring in a propaganda video explicitly stating and drumming up support for the Russian military.[22]
A compromise suggestion by Poland, where Russians and Belarusians could compete if they were dissidents, was not acted upon by the IOC.[23]
An argument by the IOC that Russia should not be punished any more harshly than FR Yugoslavia in 1992 has been called deceptive by Ukraine. The IOC has compared Russia to FR Yugoslavia in 1992, arguing that FR Yugoslavia was allowed to compete as neutrals despite being under internationally binding United Nations sanctions, therefore Russia (which is not under internationally binding sanctions) should be allowed to compete as neutrals. Ukraine counters that FR Yugoslavia did not break the Olympic Truce, and that Russia has the power to veto its own sanctions at the United Nations. Ukraine also counters that apartheid South Africa was banned outright from the Olympics for 28 years with no complaint from the IOC about banning athletes "because of their passport".[24]
In December 2023, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov directly threatened any Russian athlete who may choose to participate as a "neutral" at the 2024 Olympics, saying: "As the head of the ROC, I voice a clear position: ... We live in a free state... But... we strongly recommend that you thoroughly understand ... the extent and consequences of the personal responsibility assumed."[25]
In June 2024, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia for Tourism, Sport, Culture and Communications, stated that Russian athletes would not violate Russian law by competing in Paris as neutrals and encouraged them to participate.[26]
Competitors
The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games.
Individual Neutral Athlete canoeists qualified one boat for the Games through the result of highest rank eligible nation's in the following events, through the 2024 European Canoe Sprint Qualifier in Szeged, Hungary.
Three Individual Neutral Athletes (one male and two females) entered into the 2024 Summer Olympics trampoline competition through the World Cup Series ranking.[29][30]
The Individual Neutral Athlete rowers qualified boats in each of the following classes through the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia and the 2024 European Qualification Regatta in Szeged, Hungary.
Individual Neutral Athlete shooters achieved quota places for the following events based on their results at the 2024 ISSF World Olympic Qualification Tournament and 2024 European Championship.[31]
Individual Neutral Athlete swimmers achieved the entry standards in the following events for Paris 2024 (a maximum of two swimmers under the Olympic Qualifying Time (OST) and potentially at the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT)):[32]
Three Individual Neutral Athlete entered into the Olympic competition as weightlifters. Petr Asayonak (men's -89 kg), Yauheni Tsikhantsou (men's 102 kg), Eduard Ziaziulin (men's +102 kg) and Siuzanna Valodzka (women's 71 kg) secured one of the top ten slots in her weight divisions based on the IWF Olympic Qualification Rankings.[33]
Twenty-six Individual Neutral Athlete wrestlers (Russian and Belarusian) qualified for each of the following classes into the Olympic competition. Six wrestlers qualified for the games by virtue of top five results through the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia;[34][35] thirteen wrestler qualified by advancing to the final round at the 2024 European Olympic Qualification Tournament in Baku, Azebaijan;[citation needed] and seven wrestlers qualified through the 2024 World Qualification Tournament in Istanbul, Turkey. On July 6, 2024, Russian Wrestling Federation announced that all its invited wrestlers have unanimously decided to refuse to participate in the Olympics.[36]
VB (ranking points: 5–0 or 0–5) – Victory by injury (VF for forfeit, VA for withdrawal or disqualification)
PP (ranking points: 3–1 or 1–3) – Decision by points – the loser with technical points.
PO (ranking points: 3–0 or 0–3) – Decision by points – the loser without technical points.
ST (ranking points: 4–0 or 0–4) – Great superiority – the loser without technical points and a margin of victory of at least 8 (Greco-Roman) or 10 (freestyle) points.
SP (ranking points: 4–1 or 1–4) – Technical superiority – the loser with technical points and a margin of victory of at least 8 (Greco-Roman) or 10 (freestyle) points.
^Belarus provided military support to Russia and also allowed Russia to use its territory to stage part of the invasion.
^The first was a four-year ban starting 9 December 2019 due to the Russian doping scandal, which was reduced on appeal to a two-year ban starting 17 December 2020, expiring by 18 December 2022.