IOC issues recommendations for Russian athletes' return

The International Olympic Committee have issued recommendations for the gradual return to international competitions for Russian and Belarusian athletes, with president Thomas Bach saying their participation "works" despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The IOC Executive Board's recommendations concern only the return of those athletes to international competitions but not the 2024 Olympics where a separate decision will be taken at a later date, Bach said.

"Sports organisations must have the sole responsibility to decide which athletes can take part in international competitions based on their sporting merits and not on political grounds or because of their passports," Bach told a news conference after the meeting.

The IOC had sanctioned Russia and Belarus after the February 2022 invasion but it is now eager to see athletes come back across all sports and have a chance to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

It has set out a pathway for these competitors to earn Olympic slots through Asian qualifying and left it up to international federations to decide on organisation, but has faced headwinds, with Ukraine threatening to boycott the Paris Games should they compete there, even as neutrals.

"Participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports in international competitions works," Bach had earlier said in his address at the start of the IOC's executive board meeting at its headquarters in Lausanne.

"We see this almost every day in a number of sports, most prominently in tennis but also in cycling, in some table tennis competitions."

"We see it ice hockey, handball we see it in football and in other leagues in the United States but also in Europe and we also see it in other continents," he said. "In none of these