MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2022) The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, during a conference call with athletes, called the decision to suspend Russian athletes a dilemma and said that in the future the organization would decide how to resolve it, the head of the Commission of Athletes of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), fencer Sofya Velikaya, said.
On Wednesday, an online meeting was held with the participation of Bach, the IOC Athletes' Commission and members of the national Olympic committees' athletes' commissions.
"All human rights and the Olympic Charter have been violated. All year we were in touch with colleagues from abroad, we were heard. The only negative is that when the IOC imposed sanctions, we were not involved in discussing the situation. Yesterday, there was a conference call with Bach. There were athletes from all over the world, and I had the opportunity to personally voice all our problems to Bach. Everything that is happening now violates our rights and can lead to more serious consequences and the disappearance of the Olympic movement. Bach replied that this was a dilemma for them, because they it was hard to remove us. In the future, they will decide how to deal with this dilemma," Velikaya said during an extended meeting of the ROC athletes' commission with representatives of all-Russian sports federations and the commission of athletes of the NOC of Belarus.
"During the communication, many athletes advocated our return. There is chaos around us, but sport has always helped out. I hope other colleagues will also hear us and support us," the two-time Olympic champion added.
At the end of February, the IOC recommended that international sports federations not allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in competitions due to the situation in Ukraine. A number of federations have followed this recommendation.
