Will Russia accept the conditions imposed on Russian athletes to participate in the Olympic Games?

With 100 days until the Summer Olympics in Paris, it is still unclear whether athletes from Russia who qualify for the event will receive their country’s permission to participate.

Rather, the question is whether Moscow will accept the conditions listed by the International Olympic Committee, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ultimately, this decision may come down to the individual athletes.

The IOC estimates that 36 Russian athletes – a number that could rise to 54 – will be able to qualify for the Paris Games.

The IOC will grant them “neutral athlete” status, meaning they will not be able to use their country’s flag, national anthem or participate in team disciplines, such as football and basketball. Athletes who are connected to the military, or who have expressed support for the war in Ukraine, will be excluded.

The same conditions apply to Russia’s ally, Belarus. Athletes from Russia and Belarus will also be banned from participating in the opening ceremony, which is scheduled for July 26.

Russian President Vladimir Putin contested these conditions, and he asked the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and its Ministry of Sports to make recommendations regarding the participation of his country’s athletes in the Paris Olympics.

The CoR and the Ministry of Sports have divergent opinions.

In a series of posts on social media, NRC president Stanislav Pozdnyakov alleged that the IOC “continually develops farcical conditions” for athletes and “continually issues foreign policy directives to isolate Russian sports”. On April 5, he linked Russian tennis players who want to participate in the tournament in Paris to “a team of foreign agents”, claiming that they play for pocket money outside Russia and that they are averse to its policies. Pozdnyakov holds the title of colonel in the Russian army.

For his part, Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin believes that Russia should not boycott the Olympics.

“We need to preserve a communication channel as best we can and participate in these competitions,” Matytsin said last month in an interview with Russian news agency Tass.

Russia sent 335 athletes to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics – they won 20 gold medals and 71 overall. Russian athletes competed in the Olympics without the country’s symbol in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018, and Beijing, China, in 2022, following the institutionalized doping scandal uncovered in Putin’s country.

Ukraine disputes Russia’s participation in the Paris Olympics, but has relaxed its policy of boycotting the event on the condition that Russian athletes compete under a neutral banner.

IOC president Thomas Bach suggested last month that “boycott threats” from both countries were now over.