Russian and Belarusian gymnasts and officials banned from international competitions starting Monday
By Steve Almasy, CNN
Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials will be banned indefinitely from competitions, the International Gymnastics Federation announced Friday.
The decision means athletes and officials, including judges, from those two federations are barred from taking part in the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, from March 10-13.
It is the latest ban of a Russian sports program since Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine eight days ago.
The ban begins Monday, after the end of a World Cup event in Doha, Qatar.
On Saturday, the federation had announced Russian and Belarusian national flags would not be displayed, and the two countries’ anthems will not be played at any sanctioned event. Five events scheduled to take place this year in the two countries were canceled.
“The FIG (Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique) would like to stress that these exceptional and emergency measures are decided and issued in view of the above-mentioned extraordinary circumstances,” the governing body said. “They constitute preventive measures aiming at preserving the integrity of Gymnastics, the safety and integrity of members and all athletes and participants, and at fighting against all forms of violence and of sports injustice.
“Russian and Belarusian nationals who are members of the FIG Executive Committee or of FIG technical committees are not affected by this measure when acting in their capacity as FIG Authorities.”
Russia has a long, successful history in gymnastics. The men’s and women’s artistic teams won gold medals at the Olympics held in Tokyo last year. The rhythm gymnastics team won silver.
But those athletes competed for the Russian Olympic Committee teams because the country has been banned from major international competitions like the Olympics and World Cup through December 16 by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Russian athletes could not associate with their country’s name, flag and national anthem but could still compete if they could prove they have no link to the doping scheme.
After the invasion of Ukraine, teams from Russia have been banned entirely from competition in sports like football and athletics.
Russian and Belarusian athletes are not allowed to participate as neutrals at the Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced this week.
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CNN’s Jill Martin contributed to this report.
