THE International Fencing Federation (FIE) decided this Friday to allow the return to competitions of Russian and Belarusian athletes, excluded from trials for one year, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. In this way fencing became the first Olympic discipline to take this measure.

The decision of the governing body of the sport was adopted during an extraordinary Congress which was held at the headquarters of the organization in Lausanne (Switzerland) and was confirmed to the French agency AFP by the representative of a national federation which he participated in the conclave and preferred to keep his identity confidential.

According to the source cited by AFP, about 65% of the representatives with the right to vote who attended the FIE Congress expressed themselves in favor of the return to competition of athletes, teams and managers of these two countries.

Russian fencers are considered one of the best on the planet and at the last Tokyo Olympics they won three gold medals competing under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee and not with that of their own country, in that case sanctioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The resolution, which affects individual and team events, will take effect from April this year and will be subject to any future recommendations or decisions that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) may adopt on this issue, which is generating large global controversies such as the approach of the Paris 2024 Games. The qualifying phase of this discipline for the Olympic event will begin in April, which will last until next year.

With this determination, the FIE took a step that, for example, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) refused to take last week, when its Executive Committee decided to maintain “until further notice” the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes, officials and judges from their competitions, in force since February 26, 2022, just 48 hours after the start of the military operations of the Russian armies on Ukrainian soil.

The debate over exclusions has regained momentum after the IOC Executive Commission recommended in late January allowing athletes from these two countries to participate in the Paris Games under a neutral flag. “No athlete can be deprived of competition because of a passport,” the body said.

The IOC said meetings were held with its members, athletes’ representatives, International Federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to discuss the issue of sanctions against Russia and Belarus and support for Ukraine. And he explained that the vast majority of the parties consulted had supported the idea of ​​reopening international sport to excluded athletes, in line with the “strong commitment to the unifying mission of the Olympic Movement” and with the Olympic Charter, which calls for “respecting the rights of the athlete to be treated without discrimination”.

On Saturday, the Olympic committees of African countries spoke in favor of the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Paris Games, after an Executive Committee meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ACNOA) held in Mauritania.

Source: agencies