International Judo Federation lifts ban on Russian athletes competing under their national flag

The International Judo Federation has decided to allow Russian athletes to compete again under their national flag in its competitions starting this weekend, the IJF said on Thursday, despite the current war in ukraine which, for years, had forced them to participate under a neutral flag.

The IJF executive committee voted to “reestablish full national representation” of Russian athletes, with their anthem and symbols, starting with the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2025, which will be held from November 28 to 30.

“Athletes have no responsibility for the decisions of governments or other national institutions, and it is our duty to protect sport and our athletes,” the IJF said in a statement.

Contacted by News themezone, the IJF declined to offer further explanation for the policy change.

Following President Vladimir Putin’s orders to launch the current full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, escalating the war he refers to simply as a “special military operation,” many Russian athletes have been banned from participating in competitions in various sports, or banned from competing under the Russian flag.

The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended since 2023 by the International Olympic Committee for violating the Olympic charter by using an administrative land grab to incorporate regional sports bodies in occupied eastern Ukraine.

The Russians will be allowed to compete at next year’s Milan-Cortina Winter Games, but the IOC will maintain the system it used at the 2024 Paris Games, allowing them to compete only as individual and neutral athletes, not as Russia’s team.

Sergey Soloveychik, president of the Russian judo federation, praised what he called a “historic decision.”

“Thank you to the IJF for this long-awaited, fair and courageous decision,” he said in a statement.

The IJF said it had previously restored full national representation for Belarusian athletes. Belarus has allowed Moscow to use its territory as a staging ground for the invasion of Ukraine, and later allowed the Russian tactical nuclear missile deployment on its soil.

The IJF said it now considers it “appropriate to allow the participation of Russian athletes on equal terms,” ​​emphasizing that sport “cannot afford to become a platform for geopolitical agendas.”

“Russia has historically been a leading nation in world judo, and its full return is expected to enrich competition at all levels, while maintaining the IJF principles of fairness, inclusion and respect,” the federation said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is an enthusiastic judoka and attended events in this sport at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

However, shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the IJC stripped the Russian leader of his biggest title in world sport.

The IJF cited “the current war conflict in Ukraine” in suspend Putin’s honorary president status in the federation, and Soloveychik, who at the time was president of the European Judo Union, resigned from his position.