Russia wants to return to the Olympic fold — and thinks the new leader of world sport could make it happen.
Kirsty Coventry, a former Zimbabwean swimmer, won the race to be the next president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday, making her the first woman and first African to hold the role.
Coventry beat out several rivals, including Britain’s Sebastian Coe, an Olympic gold medallist who became a Conservative MP in the 1990s and was noted for his fierce resistance to allowing Russian competitors in international tournaments.
The Kremlin reacted to the news with jubilation, with Russian Olympic Committee President and Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev congratulating Coventry in a post on Telegram.
“We expect that in the era of the new leader, the Olympic movement will become stronger … and Russia will return to the Olympic podium,” he said.
Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which the IOC called a violation of the Olympic charter, Russian and Belarusian athletes have been barred from competing in the Games under their own flag; they are instead represented by a neutral banner.
Russian athletes who “actively support” Russia’s war or work for the military cannot participate at all — though in practice this ban has not always been enforced. Many international federations also do not allow Russian athletes to compete, meaning they cannot qualify for the Olympics.
Moscow has called such restrictions unjust and discriminatory. But supporters of the ban say Russia’s aim in having its athletes return to major competitions is to gain a soft-power tool to pierce its diplomatic isolation and rehabilitate its global image.
The next Summer Olympics is scheduled for Los Angeles in 2028. Degtyarev previously expressed the hope that Russian athletes could make a Games comeback by then, telling Russian state media last December: “I’m sure our team will be fully armed.”
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