Asian Games: officials vote to allow 500 Russian, Belarusian athletes to compete in Hangzhou, but they can’t win medals
- General Assembly of the Olympic Council of Asia vote to let athletes from two countries compete as neutrals
- Move creates pathway for athletes’ participation in the Paris Olympics next year
Up to 500 Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete as neutrals at the Asian Games in China later this year, organisers said on Saturday.
Both countries have been excluded from many sports events since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, though individual athletes have since been allowed to compete under certain restrictions.
The International Olympic Committee earlier this year said a pathway for their athletes’ participation in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games should be explored.
At a meeting in Bangkok, the General Assembly of the Olympic Council of Asia voted to allow a maximum of 500 competitors from the pariah countries to compete, so they could try and qualify for Paris.
“We propose to allow Russian and Belarusian independent athletes – again, independent athletes; 500 the quota – to compete in neutral flag as independent athletes,” Husain al-Musallam, the OCA’s director general, said.
He added that no politicians from Russia or Belarus would be invited to the Games – which start in Hangzhou in late September – and no symbols of either nation would be allowed.
