IOC advises sports bodies to let Russian youth teams, athletes compete again with flag and anthem

International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry delivers her speech during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics cauldron lighting, in front of the Quirinale Presidential Palace, in Rome, Friday Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

GENEVA — The IOC took a big step toward reintegrating Russia and Belarus into world sports Thursday by advising governing bodies to let the countries’ youth teams and athletes compete with their full identity of national flag and anthem.

Athletes have “a fundamental right to access sport across the world, and to compete free from political interference or pressure from governmental organizations,” the International Olympic Committee said in a statement.

That message in support of athletes will be welcomed in Russia and Israel, whose athletes have faced recent discrimination, and comes less than three years out from the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games that risks facing political crosswinds in the United States.

The updated strategy on Russia was set at a so-called Olympic Summit — a meeting chaired by IOC president Kirsty Coventry that invites key stakeholders from the Olympic family.

“It was recognized that implementation by the stakeholders will take time,” the IOC said in a statement, adding that each sport’s governing body should decide how to define youth events.

Some sports bodies likely will face resistance from their national member federations, especially in Europe, to the updated IOC advice which repeats that Russia should still not be picked to host international events.

The IOC’s latest move to ease the sporting isolation of Russia can apply to its own Youth Olympic Games which are held next year in Dakar, Senegal, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 13. The Russian Olympic body is still formally suspended by the IOC and currently could not compete with its national identity.

“The above principles should apply to the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, and are recommended for adoption by all governing bodies and international sports event organizers for their own youth events,” the IOC said.

Russian teams have been fully excluded from international soccer, track and field and other sports since the full military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while Russian and Belarusian athletes in winter sports are now starting to return with neutral status ahead of the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.

A small group of Russian and Belarusian athletes competed as neutrals without their national identity at the Paris Summer Games last year, where those countries were banned from team sports.

A previous attempt to enable Russia’s potential return to youth sports was met with strong pushback by European soccer federations including Ukraine in September 2023.

European soccer body UEFA moved to reintegrate Russian Under-17 teams into its competitions but dropped its policy within weeks amid boycott threats by at least 12 of the 55 member federations.

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AP Winter Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press