Overview
- The IOC Executive Board, which acted Thursday, removed all conditions on Belarusian athletes and teams, allowing flags, anthems and entry into Los Angeles 2028 qualifying events that start this summer.
- Restrictions on Russian athletes remain because the Russian Olympic Committee is suspended for absorbing sports bodies in occupied Ukrainian regions and WADA is examining new concerns about Russia’s anti-doping system.
- International federations will decide what to do next, with World Aquatics reopening events to Belarus under national symbols, World Athletics refusing to lift its ban, and ice hockey’s IIHF yet to change course.
- The IOC said it moved to protect athletes’ rights and pointed to Belarus’s Olympic committee being in good standing and to recent neutral entries at Paris 2024 and Milano Cortina 2026 occurring without incidents.
- For competitors, the decision could restore national uniforms, anthems and team places where federations permit, even as Ukraine and several sports bodies urge that sanctions stay in place.