LONDON: The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) is to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in its competitions from 2024, paving the way for their appearance at the Olympic Games in Paris, officials confirmed on Monday.

IFSC banned athletes from the two countries in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and upheld their suspension at the organisation’s general assembly in Singapore in April this year.

A task force was set up to assess the merits of the inclusion, or not, of the athletes, which has recommended the IFSC follow the guidelines issued by the International Olympic Committee earlier this year.

This follows a month-long process of consultation with the IFSC Athletes Commission, IOC, the European Council, intelligence and investigative providers, and the Ukrainian Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UMCF).

“The decision to initiate the process of reinstating athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports was not an easy one and was not taken lightly,” IFSC President Marco Scolaris said in a statement.

“Without hesitation, I say that the IFSC remains firm condemning the Russian aggression to Ukraine and continues to stand by our Ukrainian National Federation and climbers, and the Ukrainian people.

“At the same time, we consider the mission of sport and the politicisation of the athletes. We believe in the values of Olympism and inclusion, but we listen to the pressures of many governments.”

“We are also aware that — tragically — more than one hundred armed conflicts are more or less raging around the globe. Therefore, we tried to find a

balance between the different positions and create a system which can be implemented fairly in the future also for conflicts in different areas.”

Climbing joined the dozen or so sports that have followed the call by IOC chief Thomas Bach in March to find a “pathway” for athletes from Russia and Belarus to at the very least try and qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The IOC guidelines include that Russian and Belarusian athletes must compete with no flag or anthem, while those who support the war or are contracted to military or national security agencies are excluded.

The IFSC confirmed the Climbing Federation of Russia and Belarus Alpine Federation remains suspended.

“Athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports will be required to obtain neutral licences as a precondition to register themselves to IFSC events from 2024,” said the IFSC statement.

It did not specify how athletes would obtain the licences.

The Climbing World Championships were held in Moscow in 2021 and Russia leads the all-time medals table with 53, almost double that of second-placed Austria (27), though none of their three athletes competing for the Russian Olympic Committee placed for a medal at the last Olympics in Tokyo.

Their best placed finishers were Viktoria Meshkova, ninth in the women’s event, and Aleksey Rubtsov, 13th in the men’s combined.

In Paris, there will be four golds, with speed climbing becoming a separate event.

Qualifying has already started and Russians and Belarusians remain banned from the World Championships in August in Bern and from the continental qualifiers scheduled for the autumn.

But the decision means Russ­ians and Belarusians can continue to dream of securing Olym­pic berths in the final competition with places at stake: the invitational Olympic Qualifier Series from March to June 2024.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2023