Individual Neutral Athletes[a] is the name used to represent approved individual Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned those nations' previous designations due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that continued into the duration of the games. The IOC country code is AIN, from the French athlètes individuels neutres.[1]
The delegation was banned from using the Olympic flag and Olympic anthem, which was the usual custom for neutral designated athletes in previous games. They instead used a teal flag depicting a circular AIN emblem and a one-off instrumental anthem, both assigned by the IOC.[2][3][4] Individual neutral athletes must be first background checked and then approved by each sport's international federation, and then by a special panel created by the IOC.[5] Due to the AIN participating as a neutral team under certain conditions, the delegation did not march the parade of nations during the opening ceremony and did not receive an official ranking in the medal tables.[3]
While the flag uses the singular wording "Individual Neutral Athlete", the IOC uses the plural wording "Individual Neutral Athletes" in prose.[6]
Background
The "draft" emblem of the AIN flag assigned by the IOC on 8 December 2023. The provisional flag was proposed to be white with the emblem.[7]
Timeline
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which began shortly after the 2022 Winter Olympics, the IOC banned Russia and Belarus[b] and recommended that other international sporting organizers do the same on 28 February 2022.[8] 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).[9]
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 an international federation (IF) other than the IOC, the IOC recommended using 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.[10] Federations that did not have French as an official language still used the AIN name.[11] The IOC also donated $5 million to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.[12]
On 22 September 2023, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned the Russian flag and anthem from international sporting events for a second time[c] 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."[13][14]
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 its inclusion of the regional Olympic Councils of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk into the Russian Olympic Committee.[15][16] At the time of its violation of the Olympic Charter, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov had said he did not see any problems with the incorporation of the former Ukrainian regional IOCs into the Russian IOC[17] 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?'"[18]
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 rankings would exclude AIN.[7]
On 19 March 2024, the IOC updated the AIN flag to teal text and a teal background,[2] and published an instrumental anthem "produced solely for this purpose."[3] 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".[19][20]
Controversies
Ukrainian officials have criticized the IOC for not banning Russia despite it violating the Olympic Truce three times, while others have alternately criticized the IOC for applying rules against Russia which aren't applied against other countries.[21]
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".[18] On 29 December 2023, an open letter signed by 261 Ukrainian athletes contained evidence that three of the six[22] Russian athletes cleared at that time 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.[23]
A compromise suggestion by Poland, where Russians and Belarusians could compete if they were dissidents, was not acted upon by the IOC.[24]
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."[25]
In June 2024, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia for Tourism, Sport, Culture and Communications, stated that Russian athletes would not violate Russian law by competing in Paris as neutrals and encouraged them to participate.[26] However, despite Chernyshenko's encouragement, the Russian Wrestling Federation decided on 6 July to boycott the Games after most of its leading athletes were deemed ineligible to compete by the IOC. This followed the decision taken by the Russian Judo Federation over the same concerns.[27][28]
The main Russian and Belarusian broadcasters (such as Belteleradio, Channel One Russia, Match TV,[29] and VGTRK) did not broadcast or acknowledge the Olympic and Paralympic Games, except for brief summaries and negative coverage as part of their criticism of the Western world.[30][31] This is the first time since 1984 that there was no official coverage of the Games in the two former Soviet countries, when a similar approach was used during the Games in Los Angeles.
Many Russian newspapers and websites, along with Kremlin officials, also adopted a negative view of the Games by cherry picking and accentuating any flaw they could identify: for example, the media accentuated the crime and the "inconvenience" of the security measures, while the Russian Foreign Ministry complained about the weather and the inclusion of the LGBTQ community during the opening ceremony.[32]
The Associated Press noted on 27 July 2024 that Belarusian and Russian viewers depended on satellite channels and streaming services of neighbouring countries (such as Kazakhstan) to get reasonable coverage of the Games,[33] with the Moscow Times noting a rise in social media channels touting pirated streams to Belarusian and Russian viewers.[29] Without an official broadcaster in Russia, the IOC made their Olympics.com streaming service available to viewers in said country.[34]
Tougher restrictions in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in the Russian faction of the delegation winning only one silver medal, compared to 20 gold, 28 silver and 23 bronze medals as the Russian Olympic Committee at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Belarus saw a less severe decline in the tally, with one fewer silver and two fewer bronze medals compared to the previous Summer Olympics.[35][36]
Ivan Litvinovich, who represented Belarus at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was the only athlete from the delegation to defend their Olympic title, winning his second gold medal in the men's trampoline, as well as the only gold for the delegation.[37]
Individual Neutral Athlete canoeists qualified one boat for the Games through the result of highest rank eligible nation's in the following events, through the 2024 European Canoe Sprint Qualifier in Szeged, Hungary.
Three Individual Neutral Athletes (one male and two females) entered into the 2024 Summer Olympics trampoline competition through the World Cup Series ranking.[40][41]
The Individual Neutral Athlete rowers qualified boats in each of the following classes through the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia and the 2024 European Qualification Regatta in Szeged, Hungary.
Individual Neutral Athlete shooters achieved quota places for the following events based on their results at the 2024 ISSF World Olympic Qualification Tournament and 2024 European Championship.[42]
Individual Neutral Athlete swimmers achieved the entry standards in the following events for Paris 2024 (a maximum of two swimmers under the Olympic Qualifying Time (OST) and potentially at the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT)):[43]
Three Individual Neutral Athlete entered into the Olympic competition as weightlifters. Petr Asayonak (men's -89 kg), Yauheni Tsikhantsou (men's 102 kg), Eduard Ziaziulin (men's +102 kg) and Siuzanna Valodzka (women's 71 kg) secured one of the top ten slots in her weight divisions based on the IWF Olympic Qualification Rankings.[45]
On July 6, 2024, the Russian Wrestling Federation announced that all its invited wrestlers have unanimously decided to refuse to participate in the Olympics due to the IOC having blacklisted top Russian medal contenders.[28]
VIN (ranking points: 5–0 or 0–5) – Victory by injury.
VFO (ranking points: 5–0 or 0–5) – Victory by forfeit.
VPO (ranking points: 3–0 or 0–3) – Decision by points – the loser without technical points.
VPO1 (ranking points: 3–1 or 1–3) – Decision by points – the loser with technical points.
VSU (ranking points: 4–0 or 0–4) – Great superiority – the loser without technical points and a margin of victory of at least 8 (Greco-Roman) or 10 (freestyle) points.
VSU1 (ranking points: 4–1 or 1–4) – Technical superiority – the loser with technical points and a margin of victory of at least 8 (Greco-Roman) or 10 (freestyle) points.
^Belarus provided military support to Russia and also allowed Russia to use its territory to stage part of the invasion.
^The first was a four-year ban starting 9 December 2019 due to the Russian doping scandal, which was reduced on appeal to a two-year ban starting 17 December 2020, expiring by 18 December 2022.
