ROC’s Assembly stands for Russian athletes’ participation in Winter Olympics

ROC’s Assembly stands for Russian athletes’ participation in Winter Olympics
# 12 December 2017 12:15 (UTC +04:00)

The Olympic Assembly of the Russian Olympic Committee has supported those Russian athletes who issued a statement declaring their readiness to participate in the 2018 Winter Games in the neutral status. The decision was passed unanimously, a source in the Olympic Assembly has told TASS.

The Assembly - the ROC’s top governing body - is underway at the ROC office. On Monday, a commission of ROC athletes issued a common statement on behalf of Russia’s winter sports athletes explaining their stance in favor of participation in the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang under the neutral flag.

As follows from the statement that was read out, the Olympic Assembly calls for respecting "each individual athlete’s choice and for furnishing support for the athletes who will go to the Games, those who will refuse and those who will not be invited."

The Olympic Assembly merely formulated the ROC’s stance regarding Russian athletes’ participation in the Games in the neutral status, but each athlete will make up one’s mind in favor of participation personally on the basis of an invitation from the International Olympic Committee.

The International Olympic Committee on December 5 suspended the ROC’s membership, which resulted in the ban on the Russian team’s participation in the 2018 winter Olympics under the national flag. The IOC reserved an opportunity for clean athletes to participate on the condition they comply with the requirements of the special anti-doping commission and have no punishments for doping abuse in the past. The IOC will form the list of such athletes on its own.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in South Korea’s PyeongChang on February 9-25.

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THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED