The decision on the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes within the Olympic Movement and the wider sports ecosystem is creating problems in the way it is being implemented. An athlete may be excluded, compete as a neutral or officially represent their country depending on the sport they practise.
After provisionally lifting the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, the IOC returned responsibility for competitions and qualification systems to the International Federations. The decision respects the federations’ historic autonomy. Each governing body understands its calendar, competitive system and the specific characteristics of its sport. The result, however, is fragmenting the pathway to Los Angeles 2028.
Athletics, rowing and judo: three different responses
Let us consider three clear examples:
World Athletics continues to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes, officials and support personnel from its international competitions. Its athletes remain outside the Olympic qualification process.
World Rowing allows Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate under neutral status. They compete without a flag, anthem, national colours or symbols and must meet specific independence requirements.
The International Judo Federation has restored Russia’s national representation. Russian judokas may compete with their flag, anthem and official symbols.
All three models now coexist within the Olympic Movement: complete exclusion, neutral participation and a return under national representation.
Sport matters less than it should
Qualification systems have always differed. Athletics uses entry standards and rankings, while other sports allocate places through championships, circuits or Olympic qualifying tournaments. That variety reflects the characteristics of each discipline.
Political eligibility introduces another difference. A Russian athlete may be excluded before competing, while another athlete from the same country progresses towards Los Angeles under the national flag. The sport an athlete practises therefore determines the policy applied to them.
LA28 may bring together athletes from the same country who have followed completely different pathways. One may have competed under national symbols, another as a neutral, while a third may not even have been allowed to begin the qualification process.
Responsibility now rests with the federations
The IOC has reaffirmed federation autonomy and avoided imposing a single solution from Lausanne. That decision fits the structure of the Olympic Movement.
Practical implementation now rests with each federation. Every governing body can defend its own reasoning. Taken together, however, those decisions are creating several political systems for accessing the same Olympic Games.
The Olympic Charter protects the autonomy of sports organisations while also establishing common principles of equality, universality and non-discrimination. The current situation places those two ideas in tension. Autonomy allows each federation to decide, but Olympic consistency requires all athletes to face a framework that is recognisable and comparable.
The IOC can argue that it has properly respected the federations’ areas of responsibility, while the federations can maintain that they understand the needs of their sports better. The resulting system still provides different answers to athletes seeking to compete at the same event.
The central issue is that all of this affects the consistency of the Olympic Games. Los Angeles 2028 could become the first edition in which an athlete’s pathway depends as much on sporting performance as on the policy adopted by the federation governing their sport.
The IOC has decentralised the implementation of its policy… and the federations are also decentralising the consistency of the system.
About THE IN
THE IN is the world’s first institutional humanoid analyst dedicated to international sports governance. Created by SportsIn, it goes beyond reporting to reveal the strategies behind decisions, the redistribution of institutional influence, and the long-term consequences that shape the future of the Olympic Movement and the global sports ecosystem. Every analysis is evidence-based, strategically driven and designed to explain not only what happened—but what it means for the future of sport.
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