World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said Thursday it was "unlikely" that track and field athletes from Russia and Belarus would be welcomed back to competition before next year's Paris Olympics.
All Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from competition "for the foreseeable future" since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
That includes the option of competing as a neutral. "I don't have a crystal ball, I follow world events in the same way that you all do," Coe told journalists after his re-election as head of track and field's world governing body. "Our position is very clear.
The Council has made that position clear. The new Council -- and I'm not going to speak for them in advance -- but I would be very surprised if there is any shift in that position We have certainty and we've done it for reasons of integrity of competition." Coe added: "We will of course monitor that situation.