Russians, Belarusians set to return at taekwondo world championships

SEOUL – Russian and Belarusian taekwondo athletes are set to compete at May’s world championships after the sport’s global governing body said it would allow them back as neutrals following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) guidance.

The IOC issued recommendations last week for athletes from the two countries to return to international competition since their ban in 2022 in the wake of

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.

Table tennis, fencing and judo are the other Olympic sports which have re-admitted Russians and Belarusians as neutrals.

World Taekwondo said a review committee will oversee a verification process to “ensure strict neutrality” of individual athletes and support personnel after its ruling council met remotely for an extraordinary meeting on Monday.

The South Korea-based body added that it would follow guidelines established by the IOC, which said athletes who support the war, or are contracted to their countries’ military or national security agency should be excluded.

“World Taekwondo will continue to support Ukrainian athletes in ensuring they can participate in taekwondo events. The Council reaffirmed its calls for peace and solidarity with the Olympic community in Ukraine,” the organisation said.

The world championships are scheduled to begin on May 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The IOC is to make a separate decision on Russian and Belarusian athletes’ participation at the Paris Olympics.

Its reluctance to exclude them

has been met with considerable opposition from athletes and some European governments.

Three-time Olympic hammer throw champion Anita Wlodarczyk joined that chorus on Monday, calling the IOC recommendation to let Russian and Belarusian athletes return to international competition “painful”.

“This is very painful,” said the Pole at Warsaw airport before departing to Rome, where she will take part in a ceremony to hand over the Olympic torch ahead of the June 21-July 2 European Games in Krakow.

“We shouldn’t be thinking about such things at all. It should be a top-down message that athletes from both countries should not compete,” Wlodarczyk added.

“It’s certainly not easy because politics comes into it here as well, and we’ve always said that sport should be separated from politics, and we see that this is not the case here... I cannot imagine that an athlete from Ukraine would compete in one competition with an athlete from Russia, because it’s not only stressful and emotional, but there are also psychological issues, and it’s something terrible, something awful.”

Ukraine’s government has said its athletes will not be allowed to take part in Paris 2024 qualifying events if they have to compete against Russians and also threatened to boycott the Games should they be allowed to compete there. REUTERS