Allowing Russia back into the Olympics undermines what the games represent

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Russia is one step closer to full participation in the next Olympics after the International Olympic Committee voted Tuesday to lift the 2023 suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee “provisionally” for violations of the Olympic Charter related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Back in 2023, Russia was found to have incorporated sports organizations from occupied Ukrainian territory into the Russian committee’s own structure, to try to legitimize through sport Russia’s illegal war and attempted annexation of parts of Ukraine. This was a gross desecration of the Olympic spirit — sportswashing the insult on top of the deadly conflict.

But nothing that justified the 2023 suspension has changed, and the decision this week undermines everything the Olympics purports to represent.

The new announcement came as Russian ballistic and cruise missiles were killing dozens of Ukrainians and injuring hundreds more over the past week, in some of the worst bombing since the full-scale invasion was launched in 2022 (the initial invasion occurred in 2014). Russian bombings have also destroyed more than 800 sports facilities, including 20 Olympic, Paralympic and Deaflympic training centers.

“We wanted to ensure all athletes have the possibility to compete at the Olympic Games and not be held responsible for their governments’ actions,” International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry said in a news conference in explaining the decision. “And I believe that this is what this decision speaks to. It allows for Russian athletes to take part in sport competitions, but we’ve also been very clear that we don’t condone any violence and war around the world.”

Tragically, the same cannot be said for participation by hundreds of athletes from Ukraine, the country that Russia invaded and has been attacking for more than a dozen years. According to a statement by the office of the Ukrainian president, “Overall, during the full-scale war, Russia has killed 660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches who will never again be able to participate in the Olympic Games or in any other international competitions.”

That statement is from February of this year. More Ukrainian athletes have been killed by Russian bombings and attacks since then. Many more have traded training and competitions for the battlefield. They will never get a chance to compete in the Olympics. It is neither fair nor right that their Russian competitors will.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, his country’s flag bearer, was “not allowed to participate at Milano Cortina 2026 after refusing to adhere to the IOC athlete expression guidelines.” His offense: his insistence on wearing a helmet honoring people killed by Russian forces. Several of his fellow Olympians from Ukraine also were barred from competing for the same reason.

Since 2023, Russia has continued to wage the largest war in Europe since World War II. Russian forces continue to bombard Ukrainian cities, targeting civilians and the infrastructure of daily life: schools, electricity grids, transportation. Russia has abducted children, coerced foreign fighters to the front line, and emptied its prisons on Ukrainian battlefields.

The International Olympic Committee argues that sport should unite rather than divide, and that national athletes shouldn’t bear the punishment for governments’ actions. But international sport is a privilege that should be earned, and the Olympics purports to reflect the highest and purest form of sport. The committee cannot separate sport from actions that directly violate its own principles, and, in fact, its own charter.

The Olympics are much more than athletic achievement. The Games are supposed to represent who we are at our very best — not only athletically, but by celebrating the idea of peace, of a global community and international rules that protect every nation, large and small.

The Olympic committee’s steps to shepherd Russia back before the very conflict that spurred its suspension isn’t resolved do not advance peace. These actions risk the impression of accepting aggression, turning a blind eye to international law, and providing the paint and brush to enable Russia to whitewash its crimes.

The Olympic committee must make clear that participation in the Olympic movement carries responsibilities. The world thinks of the Olympics as an ideal, as the best of who we are as a global community. But if the Olympics movement means anything, its principles must be at the center of its mission, including when those principles are politically difficult.

These words are included in the opening principles of the Olympic Charter, the document that defines the purpose of the Olympic movement: “The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”

These ideals — the very heart of sports — should have guided the International Olympic Committee before it made its decision allowing Russia, even “provisionally,” to return to the Olympic stage.

David J. Kramer, Executive Director of the George W. Bush Institute and former deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia during the George W. Bush Administration. Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau is the Bradford M. Freeman Managing Director of Global Policy at the Bush Institute and former U.S. diplomat.