Moscow, Europe Brief News – Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has suggested that Russian and Belarusian athletes should gradually return to international sporting competitions.
In light of Bach’s proposal, Head of the International Ski Federation (FIS) Michel Vion also said, that it may be possible for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under neutral flags, in the FIS World Championships, which take place in December.
Siim Sukles, secretary general of the Estonian Olympic Committee, and sports journalist Ott Järvela discussed the issue on ETV morning show “Terevisioon.”
“Top-level sport is also a political field, where different political forces are at play,” said Järvela.
“They are not the kind we are used to seeing on the political scene. But there are movements made here and there. There are significant amount of people, who want to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes – admittedly as neutrals, that is without their national flags or national anthems – to return in greater numbers to the competitive arena, ” he explained.
“This initiative came from the International Olympic Committee a couple of weeks ago, it was first leaked in the US media and now the Secretary General of the International Ski Federation, Michel Vion, has been quite explicit about what the plan is.
The plan is supposedly to try to get (Russian and Belarusian athletes) back into competition in some form, from December,” said Järvela.
