World Athletics President Sebastian Coe Says Return Of Russian Athletes 'Unlikely' Before Paris Olympics
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.
