Russia Still Banned From Olympic Athletics -- 'But Things Change': Coe

Russian competitors remain banned from track and field events at next year's Paris Olympics but Sebastian Coe on Monday conceded that "the world changes" and said the situation was being monitored.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said earlier this month that athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus would be able to compete in Paris as neutrals, outside of team events and as long as they did not actively support the war on Ukraine.

That move changed the position of their original blanket ban following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But World Athletics president Coe said after the IOC's move that his sport would not allow Russians or Belarusians to compete in Paris -- and in a conference call with agencies including AFP he said that position had not changed.

"There is no change," the British double Olympic gold medallist said.

"The most important thing is that everybody is beginning to recognise that the autonomy and independence of international federations to make these judgements is really important.

"We made a judgement which we believe was in the best interest of our sport."

Coe added though that "the world changes every five minutes, the situation could change".

"We do have a working group that is monitoring the situation within the sport and it will advise and guide the Council on what circumstances might need to exist for any exclusion to be lifted," he added.

Other Topics of Interest

‘You Will Be Left to Suffer and Die’: Rutte Warns Young Russians Against Fighting in Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a stark appeal to young Russians not to fight in the war in Ukraine, saying they will be sent to the front with poor training, bad equipment and a high chance of being killed, wounded or abandoned. He backed his warning with NATO estimates that Russia is losing more than 30,000 soldiers a month – more in a single month than the Soviet Union lost during its entire 10-year war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.