Individual athletes from Russia and Belarus who successfully qualify for next summer’s Paris Olympics will be allowed to compete in the Games, the International Olympic Committee announced on Friday, ending talk of a blanket ban on competitors from the two nations over the war in Ukraine.
The athletes will be allowed to take part only as “individual neutral athletes” and under other strict conditions, Olympic officials said. Disqualifying actions include active support for the war in Ukraine or personal contracts with Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies.
The open door may prove a narrow one: The Olympic committee’s decision specified that, to compete in Paris, athletes from Russia and Belarus first must qualify “through the existing qualification systems” of their particular sports — effectively deferring the call on eligibility to the differing rules of dozens of international sports federations.