IOC eases path toward Russia returning with full team at 2028 LA Olympics

Russia has moved closer toward having a full team with its national flag and anthem at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday provisionally lifted a suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee and advised Olympic sports bodies to end a three-year program where Russian athletes had to be vetted for permission to compete as neutrals. The IOC said the timing was because qualifying events are starting for the L.A. Games and “the need to offer equal access to these competitions to all athletes.”

The move, which also signals a return for Russia in team sports, had been expected since the IOC advised two months ago that athletes from Belarus, which was Russia’s ally when its military invasion of Ukraine started in 2022, should be allowed again to compete with their full national identity. “We don’t want to hold athletes accountable for the actions of their governments,” IOC president Kirsty Coventry said at an online news conference after she chaired an executive board meeting. A two-time Olympic gold medalist swimming for Zimbabwe, Coventry said it was a fair decision and noted: “I wouldn’t be sitting here if I had to pay the price when my country was going through things and being sanctioned.”

Ukraine’s sports minister Matvii Bidnyi questioned why the IOC altered its rules when in the war “nothing changed. The situation became even worse.”

Russia unleashed waves of missiles and drones at Ukraine early Monday, killing at least 22 people.

“So we don’t understand it,” Bidnyi told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. “In this day, when all of Ukraine (is) in a day of mourning, when our flags was a little bit lower because of so many people, our peaceful citizens was killed yesterday at night.”

The IOC also reiterated its “solidarity with the Olympic community of Ukraine” and ongoing financial support.

Barriers remain: The IOC’s guidance to reintegrate Russians in international events is not binding for the governing bodies of individual sports.

“Our country’s return to the Olympic family is a green light for international federations to restore the rights of our athletes,” Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyaryov said Tuesday.

Track and field is not following suit.