GENEVA: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday said it was confronted with the “irreconcilable positions” of Russia and Ukraine reg­arding the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at next year’s Paris Olympics.

The IOC in March issued a first set of recommendations for international sports federations to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to return since they were banned in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

In an updated version of these recommendations published on Thursday, the IOC said: “We are still confronted with two irreconcilable positions. The Russian side wants the IOC to ignore the war. The Ukrainian side wants the IOC to totally isolate anyone with a Russian and Belarusian passport.”

Although the IOC said the Olympic committees of Russia and Belarus would not receive an official invitation to the Paris Games like other countries later this month, a decision on their participation would be made at a later date.

“The IOC will take this decision at the appropriate time, at its full discretion, and without being bound by the results of previous Olympic qualification competitions,” it said.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been allowed to compete as neutrals at the Hangzhou Asian Games to help them earn points to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

The IOC said it was deplorable that some European governments had shown “negative reactions” to its stance on the participation of Russia and Belarus.

“We have not seen a single comment from them about their attitude towards the participation of athletes whose countries are involved in the other 70 wars, armed conflicts and crises in the world,” it said.

It also said it regretted that Ukrainian athletes were absent from the judo and taekwondo world championships due to the participation of Russians and Belarusians.

“It is hard to understand why the Ukrainian government is depriving its own athletes of their chance to qualify for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and to make the Ukrainian people proud,” the IOC said.

IOC president Thomas Bach is due to speak to the media on July 18.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2023