Tokyo waits for Russian Olympic athletes

A month ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has sent an official invitation to Russia to take part in the Summer Olympics that will be held in Tokyo. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has got a possibility, as compared to the Games in PyeongChang, to form Russia’s full-fledged Olympic team, which will perform under its flag, with the national anthem and without any restrictions.

Russia’s Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyakov said that relations with the IOC were restored after the end of the Olympic Games in PyeongChang: "During this period, we managed to hold a series of successful negotiations, there was a landmark visit of president of the IOC Thomas Bach to Russia last summer when he met with the president of our country and visited the headquarters of the Russian Olympic Committee. Our disagreements with the IOC were overcome back then. In September,  the suspension of Russia's Anti-Doping Authority was lifted - one of the stumbling blocks was the anti-doping issue. Now everything that the Russian side is doing is fully supported by international sports organizations, but we have some unclosed stories, including the situation with athletics. But I’m sure that our athletes will appear at the Olympics in Russian uniform."

The Tokyo Olympics will be the first full-fledged games after the restrictions introduced in 2016. "There are many sports where judging is biased and can be influenced by certain factors. We are witnessing the international boxing federation crisis, and unfair judging is among the fundamental claims in this crisis. Therefore, our main task as participants in the International Olympic Movement is to carry out reforms that would allow to make the decision-making process during various competitions to be the most transparent, understandable to the public and to all participants, and in the first place, for athletes. Over the past year, we have increased the participation of Russians in IOC commissions, constantly increasing the number of our representatives in international sports federations. This is a guarantee that the Russian Federation will not only follow the logic of international sports organizations, but will develop its own agenda," Pozdnyakov said.