IOC confirms Russians competing as neutrals at Milan-Cortina Games and no talks on Israel

MILAN (AP) — Russians will be allowed to compete at next year’s Milan-Cortina Winter Games but the International Olympic Committee said on Friday it had never discussed banning Israel.

The IOC confirmed after an executive board meeting in Milan that it will follow the system it used at the Paris Games last year, allowing Russians to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes — using the French acronym AIN.

“We also spoke about the individual neutral athletes at Milano-Cortina, this will be nothing new for all of you,” IOC president Kirsty Coventry said. “The executive board will take the exact same approach that was done in Paris, so it’s just a continuation … nothing has changed from Paris.”

The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended since 2023 by the IOC for breaking the Olympic charter by using an administrative land grab to incorporate regional sports bodies in occupied eastern Ukraine.

IOC restrictions bar Russia from team sports and individual Russian athletes who are in the military or publicly support the invasion of Ukraine. Those who are given neutral status must compete without their national identity, flag, anthem and colors.

Of the 32 “neutral” athletes at the Paris Olympics, 17 previously represented Belarus and 15 represented Russia.

It is still up to each sport’s governing body, which run their own Olympic competitions, to assess and enforce neutral status of individual athletes.

“We are working with the international federations to understand with the decision we have placed today, what is the fast way for a number of athletes to still qualify for the games,” the IOC Olympic Games operations director Pierre Ducrey said. “Some of the federations … have not opened the door themselves to the participation of AIN athletes.

“So we’ll have to work with those which still have a decision to make or have made a decision. This is the case, for example, of the Skating Union federation, the Ski Mountaineering Federation. … So we are working closely with them to understand where are possibilities to still qualify for the Games moving forward.”

Russia has been banned from international sporting events — such as soccer competitions — since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and there have been growing calls to do the same with Israel, too, as the civilian toll of the war in Gaza grows.

When specifically asked if the IOC had ever considered excluding Israeli athletes, Coventry said, “This executive board and in no other executive board have we discussed not having NOCs (National Olympic Committees) represented.”

The IOC previously said Israel hasn’t breached the Olympic charter like Russia, when it annexed territories in eastern Ukraine.

Still there will be heightened security concerns, especially after pro-Palestinian protests interrupted the final stage of the Spanish Vuelta last Sunday and forced organizers to cut short the cycling Grand Tour event.

Coventry added: “The priority for the organizing committee, for the host country, and for the IOC is to ensure safety of all our athletes and fans, and anyone that comes into contact with the Games and those processes have not been changed and they will continue as per normal.”

The Milan-Cortina Games will take place across a large swath of northern Italy from Feb. 6-22.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics

Daniella Matar, The Associated Press