Kirsty Coventry. AP Photo
MINSK, 23 October (BelTA) - Chairman of the Belarus NOC Athletes' Commission Aliaksandr Bahdanovich and his deputy Siarhei Rutenka participated in a video conference with the IOC Athletes' Commission and IOC President Kirsty Coventry, BelTA learned from the press service of the NOC of Belarus.
On 21 October, the Council of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) decided to bar Belarusian athletes from qualifying for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy, even as individual neutral athletes. During the online meeting, Belarus raised a question with Kirsty Coventry regarding the FIS decision and the approach of other winter sports federations.
“All Belarusian athletes express their full support for the principles of autonomy, political neutrality, and non-discrimination. We earnestly hope that the International Olympic Committee will be just as resolute and consistent in protecting the rights of all athletes, regardless of their nationality. This raises the question whether the IOC will take any action regarding the winter sports international federations, including yesterday's FIS decision.”
The IOC president noted that it is our job and our responsibility to ensure that all athletes compete at the Olympic Games. “No athlete should be held responsible for political views. Now, that is very easy for me to say, and sometimes harder, and I'm being very honest with all of you, harder to implement, because we have a lot of partners to discuss all of these things as hard as they may be, and sometimes we have to be very patient, but we will always try to get the end result that we believe we should have. We have to ensure that there is consistency when we take decisions, which we will be implementing. I am aware of the FIS conversations yesterday. I'm waiting to get a full update and brief from the chair or the president of FIS and to fully understand the discussions that they had, and I can't really comment further on that until I have that formal briefing from them. We can always come back to you once we have the full understanding of what exactly took place yesterday during their board meeting,” the IOC president said.
Photo of the NOC of Belarus
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