Russia will soon return to the Olympic arena. Two years before the Los Angeles Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) lifted, on Tuesday July 7, some of the restrictions imposed on Russian athletes. Qualifications will be open to them from this summer, even in team sports.
Unlike Belarus, fully reintegrated at the beginning of May with all its national symbols, the Olympic body will decide “in due time on the use, during the Olympic Games, of the flag, the anthem and the Russian colors, or any other symbol”. Russian athletes will also have to comply with reinforced anti-doping monitoring.
The IOC’s decision, strongly criticized by Ukraine, marks a new stage in Russia’s return to the Olympic Games, after a decade of exclusion.
2014: the IOC launches an investigation into doping by Russian athletes
With 33 medals, Russia largely dominated the Winter Games organized on its soil, in Sochi, in February 2014. But, a few months later, a documentary broadcast by the German channel ARD put this success into perspective. Fueled by the testimony of two Russian athletes, Yulia and Vitaly Stepanov, this investigation reveals systematic doping covered up by the Russian authorities in athletics. The IOC then requested the opening of an investigation.
In November 2015, the first conclusions of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) were released: cases of doping in athletics “could not have existed” without the consent of the Kremlin. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency was subsequently suspended.
2016: more than 100 Russian athletes deprived of the Games in Rio
In May 2016, a third whistleblower appeared on the scene. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, now based in the United States, reveals the cheating system put in place at the Sochi Winter Games. He sent the Americans numerous documents – emails, spreadsheets, etc. – which will serve as the basis for a new WADA report.
Published three weeks before the Rio Olympics, this report highlights the establishment of a “secure state doping system” during the competition, “directed, controlled and supervised” by the Russian sports ministry, “with the active help of the FSB, the Russian secret services”. WADA then called for the exclusion of the Russian delegation from the Olympics organized in Brazil. The IOC ultimately leaves the international federations to decide on a case-by-case basis. 118 Russian athletes are deprived of the Games.
At the end of 2017, the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended for doping. Which does not prevent 169 Russians from participating in the Pyongyang Games in 2018, but under a neutral banner.
2019: historic exclusion of Russia from the Olympics
To continue its investigations, the World Anti-Doping Agency is asking Russia to provide it with data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory kept under sequestration. Russia complies, but WADA experts realize that these documents have been subject to numerous manipulations.
It’s the last straw. On December 10, 2019, the IOC punished Russia by excluding it from the Olympic Games for four years. Even if the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduces this duration by half, the sanction imposed on Moscow is unprecedented in the history of sports justice.
Russian athletes are not disqualified from the Olympics, however. They can compete under the flag of the ROC, the Russian Olympic Committee, at the Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021, and at the Winter Games in Beijing the following year.
2022: ban from the Beijing Paralympic Games
Barely had the Beijing Olympics ended when the Russian army invaded Ukraine, triggering a series of sporting sanctions. The IOC accuses Moscow of violating the Olympic truce. From the end of February 2022, the Olympic body recommends that international federations no longer hold their competitions on Russian soil and ban any official Russian symbol, whether the anthem or the flag.
After initially authorizing Russian athletes to participate in the Beijing Paralympic Games under a neutral banner, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) finally decided to exclude them.
2023: gradual return to competition
From 2023, Russian athletes are gradually re-entering world sport. In December, the IOC authorized them to participate in the Paris 2024 Games and then, two years later, in those of Milan-Cortina, on several conditions: not having “actively supported the war in Ukraine”, not being under contract with the Russian army or security agencies, competing under a neutral banner and only participating in individual events. And, of course, having cleared the qualifying hurdle.
2026: first reappearance of the Russian flag at the Paralympic Games
With the restrictions imposed by the IOC, only thirteen Russian athletes were able to participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics under the banner of neutral individual athletes. But the rules have been relaxed for the Paralympics. Six Russian athletes were allowed to compete under their flag, which sparked an outcry. France therefore chose not to send a political representative to the opening ceremony in Verona.
The green light given by the IOC to Russian athletes this Tuesday was not unanimous either. Although it should allow a larger delegation to travel to the United States for the 2028 Olympics, several international federations still maintain their total exclusion from competitions, like World Athletics. Recently, the governing body of world athletics stressed that no “concrete progress towards peace negotiations has materialized”.
