International Fencing Federation allows Russians and Belarusians to compete

The International Fencing Federation (FIE) allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in competitions again, in particular in the selection for the Olympic Games. 

Source: Inside the Games with reference to Friday's FIE meeting, Ukrainian sabre fencer and Olympic champion Olha Kharlan

Details: The decision will take effect from the second half of April this year, just before the World Fencing Championships in Milan, scheduled for July. This will allow Belarusian and Russian athletes to participate in the selection for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The decision whether athletes from both countries will be able to compete under their flags will depend on the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee.

The publication reports that the Russian and Belarusian teams were allowed to return by 85 votes to 51, with 3 abstentions. Officials were allowed to attend FIE competitions by a vote of 88 to 48, with 2 abstentions.

Two attempts by the Fencing Federation of Ukraine to block this decision were unsuccessful.

Ukrainian sabre fencer and Olympic champion Olha Kharlan commented on this decision.

Quote from Kharlan: "Disappointment... Anger... Injustice... This is what I feel now.

They think that 'athletes are not responsible', 'sport is out of politics', 'we are all one family and should live in peace' to [achieve – ed.] their selfish goals.

This thought is destroyed at the moment when bombs fall on your home, on your land, when you have to live under explosions, when you have to go to the front and protect your family from murder, from someone who wants to destroy your life and [do – ed.] a lot of things that you hadn’t even seen in your worst nightmares. These people will never understand until it happens to them."

Reference: The selection tour for Paris-2024 in fencing starts on 3 April and will last until 1 April next year.

Background: 

• Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been barred from participating in FIE competitions since last March due to the war in Ukraine.
• Earlier, the International Olympic Committee  said it was "studying the possibility" of returning athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus to international competitions under "strict conditions" of neutrality, although this provoked an angry reaction in Ukraine and a group of 35 nations that called for greater clarity in the definition of neutrality.
• Until March 2022, the president of FIE was Alisher Usmanov, a Russian oligarch, who is under sanctions.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!