The International Olympic Committee has provisionally lifted its suspension of the Russian athletes. The decision marks a significant step towards Russia's reintegration into the Olympic fold ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
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TRANSCRIPT:
In October 2023, Russia was suspended from the Olympic Games for recognising Olympic councils in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine after their invasion of their neighbour.
Now, three years later, IOC President Kirsty Coventry says the ban on Russian athletes at the Games has been provisionally lifted.
"We wanted to ensure all athletes have the possibility to compete at the Olympic Games and not be held responsible for their government's actions. And I believe that this is what this decision speaks to."
Russian athletes competed as neutrals at the 2024 Paris Olympics and at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games.
Russian sports minister Mikhail Degtyarev says the IOC's decision should clear the way for Russian athletes to make a full return to the international sporting stage - namely the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
But the country remains under a cloud.
Dr Richard McLaren produced a report for the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2015 that found evidence of systematic doping in Russian athletics, and a state-sponsored cover-up that operated around the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
"First, the Moscow laboratory operated for the protection of doped Russian athletes within a state-directed, fail-safe system, which we describe in the report as the 'disappearing positive methodology'. Second, the Sochi laboratory operated a unique sample-swapping methodology to enable doped Russian athletes to compete at the winter Olympic games."
Russian officials have repeatedly denied the existence of a state-backed doping programme.
But WADA imposed a four-year ban in 2019 after Moscow was found to have manipulated laboratory data, a sanction later cut to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Kirsty Coventry says the IOC in the present day will ensure adequate testing is done on Russian athletes coming into the LA Games.
"When it comes to some of the measures, really what was very important to us is to ensure that we have the community feeling very confident in the fair and safe environment in sport that we want to be able to provide. And that's where you see the additional measures that we have put into place in and around ensuring that athletes from Russia have been tested adequately before they come back into any sports programs."
Meanwhile, the decision to lift the ban on Russian athletes has been met with fury and dismay.
Director General of the Global Athlete, Rob Koehler, says many athletes are appalled.
"It doesn't it doesn't smell right. It doesn't feel right, and it's simply not right for every athlete out there."
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has called the decision a troubling signal for the entire international community.
Athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych - the Ukrainian face of the Milano Cortina Games after being banned for wearing a helmet featuring athletes killed in the war with Russia - has called for a coalition of national Olympic committees to oppose the decision.
He says visa bans and boycott talks should be on the table.
"We should understand that on the background of this news, we have shellings just every other day in Ukraine. And today, even today, like this day, we have a day of mourning because a lot of victims were killed in a previous attack. And to see that Russian flags are now welcomed again, once again by the IOC, it’s absolutely shameful, and I cannot understand this decision."
The decision has come the same week as the IOC approved stronger language around the principle that sport should be free from political interference.
Juan Antonio Samaranch is an executive board member.
“We have to keep the independence. It is more difficult every day, it is more complicated, we are subject to more pressures. The world is getting more and more complicated, and if we don’t start... We need to arm ourselves to protect ourselves through the charter to be able to take the right decisions."
Kirsty Coventry has tried to reassure athletes and organisers that Russia will continue to be closely monitored.
She says the International Olympic Committee is trying to be neutral.
"But we've also been very clear that we do not condone any violence and war around the world. And we will continue with that stance."
Rob Koehler says it's impossible to keep sport and politics separate.
"That's pure rhetoric. I mean sport and politics have always been there and they'll always be there. And we just saw it with the World Cup, where the president of United States got involved. We see it in Russia. Russia is run by the government. Their sport is totally run by government. The athletes train under government venues, so there's no separation between sport and politics. The IOC uses that only to serve what they want to do."
