The Olympic body’s provisional restoration of the Russian committee creates a path towards reintegration before Los Angeles 2028, while Ukrainian athletes seek a coalition to resist normalisation during an ongoing war.
The International Olympic Committee has provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, reopening a dispute over whether international sport should normalise relations with Russian institutions while Moscow’s war against Ukraine continues.
The ROC had been suspended since October 2023 after recognising regional sporting bodies in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The IOC said those organisations were no longer included as ROC members, removing the specific legal basis for the suspension.
The executive board’s decision does not yet determine whether Russian flags, colours and the anthem will return at the Los Angeles 2028 Games. It does, however, move Russia closer to institutional reintegration and sends a signal to international federations considering their own restrictions.
A narrow legal correction with broad political effects
The IOC presents the decision as a response to a change in the ROC’s membership structure. On that interpretation, once the Russian committee stopped asserting jurisdiction over Ukrainian regional sports bodies, the grounds for the 2023 suspension no longer applied.
Ukraine and its supporters see the issue more broadly. Russia continues to occupy Ukrainian territory, attack cities and use sport as part of state prestige. Removing the formal violation from the ROC’s documents does not change the conditions that made the action politically consequential.
The IOC says athletes should not be held responsible for their governments and continues to condemn the invasion. It also says it will not organise events in Russia or invite Russian state officials. Critics argue that restoring the national committee inevitably gives Moscow a platform even if individual participation rules remain qualified.
Heraskevych calls for organised resistance
Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych urged national Olympic committees to form a coalition against Russia’s return. He said visa restrictions and even boycott discussions should be considered, calling the IOC decision shameful and warning that Russia would exploit participation for propaganda.
Heraskevych became a prominent Ukrainian voice after being disqualified at the Milano Cortina Winter Games over a helmet honouring Ukrainian athletes killed during the war. His intervention turns institutional criticism into an immediate campaign for coordinated national action.
A boycott would be highly contentious and could punish athletes from countries opposing Russia. Visa policies and federation-level exclusions may be more targeted, but they could produce fragmented competitions and legal challenges.
International sport is moving in different directions
The IOC decision does not create uniform rules. World Athletics reaffirmed its exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes only days earlier. EU Global reported that athletics remains outside the broader trend towards Russian reintegration.
Other federations permit neutral athletes under eligibility checks, while some team sports maintain wider bans. The result is a patchwork in which an athlete’s access depends on the governing body, nationality criteria and event location.
That inconsistency reflects a deeper disagreement about the purpose of sporting sanctions. If they are punishment for state aggression, they should remain linked to the war. If they address a specific governance breach, institutional compliance may justify restoration even before the political context changes.
Neutrality is not politically neutral
The IOC’s preference is to protect individual access to competition and separate sport from government action. In practice, Olympic success is promoted by states, funded through national systems and incorporated into political narratives.
Russia has a long record of using international sport for prestige. Ukraine argues that normalisation during the war would weaken one of the remaining forms of non-military pressure and erase the experiences of athletes killed, displaced or prevented from training.
Russian officials, by contrast, portray restrictions as discrimination and the provisional restoration as overdue recognition that athletes should compete.
Los Angeles becomes the next pressure point
The IOC has deferred the most visible decisions: flag, anthem and national identification at the 2028 Games. That delay gives it flexibility but ensures the dispute will continue through qualification events and federation decisions.
Ukraine’s ability to resist will depend on whether other national committees join its position. Moral condemnation without coordinated policy is unlikely to reverse the IOC’s course.
The central contradiction remains unresolved. The ROC has corrected the organisational act that triggered its suspension, but Russia has not ended the occupation that made the act possible. The IOC has chosen legal compliance as a basis for provisional return. Ukraine is asking the sporting world to judge the wider reality.
