Timeline

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the IOC banned Russia and Belarus^{[lower-alpha 1]} and recommended that other international sporting organizers do the same on 28 February 2022.^[5] Accordingly, Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from the 2022 Winter Paralympics.

On 25 January 2023, the IOC published a statement supporting the idea that Russian and Belarusian athletes could be allowed to compete as neutrals, as long as they did not "actively" support the war and as long as Russian and Belarusian flags, anthems, colors, and names were disallowed (thus banning the alternate designations used by Russia in 2018 and 2020).^[6]

On 28 March 2023, the IOC introduced the AIN name and narrowed the requirements down to individual athletes, disallowing any teams of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing. For events organized by international federations other than the IOC, the IOC recommended to use no flag at all (or if not possible, the event's flag, the IF's flag, or the letters "AIN") and the event's anthem or the IF's anthem.^[7] Federations that did not have French as an official language still used the AIN name.^[8] The IOC also donated $5 million (USD) to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.^[9]

On 22 September 2023, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned the Russian flag and anthem from international sporting events for a second time^{[lower-alpha 2]} due to Russian legislation and RUSADA failing to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code, overlapping with the Olympic Truce ban. WADA announced that the ban would not be lifted until "the non-conformities related to national legislation are corrected in full."^[10][11]

On 12 October 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee until further notice, overlapping with the other two bans, due to its violation of the Olympic Charter due to annexing the Olympic Councils of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Lugansk into the Russian Olympic Committee; at the time of its violation of the Olympic Charter, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov had said: "I don’t see any difficulties here."^{[12][13][14][15]} The Russian Olympic Committee responded to its suspension by saying that the IOC had not issued a similar suspension after the Russian Olympic Committee annexed a sporting entity in Crimea in 2014, to which IOC President Thomas Bach remarked, "this argument was a little bit, 'Why did you not sanction us already, earlier?'"^[16]

On 8 December 2023, the IOC published a "draft" version of the AIN flag depicting a colorless emblem on a white background, and stated that they would decide on a different neutral anthem at a later date. The IOC also officially stated that the AIN designation would apply to the Paris 2024 games, and that official medal tables would exclude AIN.^[4]

On 19 March 2024, the IOC updated the AIN flag to teal text and a teal background,^[17] and published an instrumental anthem "produced solely for this purpose."^[2] The IOC also stated that as independent athletes, AIN will not participate as a delegation during the parade of nations at the opening ceremony, but the athletes would still "be given the opportunity to experience the event".^[18][19]

Controversy

Ukrainian officials have criticized the IOC for not banning Russia despite it thrice violating the Olympic Truce, while others have alternately criticized the IOC for applying rules against Russia that do not get applied against other countries.^{[citation needed]}

In particular, the requirement that athletes must not actively support the war has been described as "ineffectual". For example, Russian IOC member Yelena Isinbayeva was cleared as "not linked with the Russian military and not supporting the invasion", despite being pictured in military uniform and receiving military promotions, and despite pro-Russian citizens expressing anger at Isinbayeva after she claimed in defense that she had "never been in the service of the armed forces".^[16] On 29 December 2023, an open letter signed by 261 Ukrainian athletes contained evidence that three of the six^[20] Russian athletes cleared to participate had in fact actively supported the war, such as by participating in a pro-war rally in March 2022, or starring in a propaganda video explicitly stating and drumming up support for the Russian military.^[21]

A compromise suggestion by Poland, where Russians and Belarusians could compete if they were dissidents, was not acted upon by the IOC.^[22]

An argument by the IOC that Russia should not be punished any more harshly than FR Yugoslavia in 1992 has been called deceptive by Ukraine. The IOC has compared Russia to FR Yugoslavia in 1992, arguing that FR Yugoslavia was allowed to compete as neutrals despite being under internationally binding United Nations sanctions, therefore Russia (which is not under internationally binding sanctions) should be allowed to compete as neutrals. Ukraine counters that FR Yugoslavia did not break the Olympic Truce, and that Russia has the power to veto its own sanctions at the United Nations. Ukraine also counters that apartheid South Africa was banned outright from the Olympics for 28 years with no complaint from the IOC about banning athletes "because of their passport".^[23]

In December 2023, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov directly threatened any Russian athlete who may choose to participate as a "neutral" at the 2024 Olympics, saying: "As the head of the ROC, I voice a clear position: ... We live in a free state... But... we strongly recommend that you thoroughly understand ... the extent and consequences of the personal responsibility assumed."^[24]

In February 2024, several left-wing French lawmakers sent a letter to the IOC proposing to sanction Israeli athletes while only allowing them to participate under the Individual Neutral Athlete label due to the Israel–Hamas war, which has resulted in significant civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.^[25]

Road

Three Individual Neutral Athletes qualified as riders for the road race events after securing the quotas through the UCI Nation Ranking.^[26]

More information Athlete, From ...

Athlete	From	Event	Time	Rank
	Russia	Men's road race
		Men's time trial
	Russia	Women's road race
	Belarus
	Russia	Women's time trial

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Trampoline

Three Individual Neutral Athletes (one male and two females) entered into the 2024 Summer Olympics trampoline competition through the World Cup Series ranking. ^[27][28]

More information Athlete, From ...

Athlete	From	Event	Qualification		Final
			Score	Rank	Score	Rank
Ivan Litvinovich	Belarus	Men's
Iana Lebedeva	Russia	Women's
Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya	Belarus

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