World Athletics president Sebastian Coe says the governing body’s stance on sanctions imposed on Russia will not change.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been banned from international track and field competition by World Athletics since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Russian Athletics Federation has filed a new claim with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) to challenge the sanctions imposed by World Athletics.
But Coe said: “Our position hasn’t changed. This isn’t about politics or passports, it’s about the integrity of competition.”
Russian Athletics says the ongoing sanctions “infringe on the organisation’s rights”, adding they “prevent it from fully representing the interests of Russian athletes on an international level”.
Should the Cas ruling come down in favour of Russian Athletics, the way could be opened for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the next Olympic Games, which will be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
Coe, who won two Olympic gold medals during a celebrated athletics career, has pledged to attend the Cas hearing to help present the case of World Athletics.
Speaking on Sunday at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, the 69-year-old Briton said: “From the age of 18, I believe that every position I’ve taken, whether it was during the creation of the first IOC athletes’ commission or positions I’ve personally taken, it’s about integrity and it’s about competition.
“That matters to me, so our position won’t change.”
Coe added that the issue needed to be “resolved” and that the overall objective was to have a “full complement of people on a global level competing in our sport”.
Russian Athletics executive director Boris Yaryshevsky, in an interview with the Russian TASS news agency last week, criticised Coe’s intention to attend the Cas hearing.
“It is very clear that he has something personal,” said Yaryshevsky.
“He is no longer speaking on behalf of World Athletics as a federation. He is speaking for himself, saying that he personally will go to court to defend this.
“I believe this is simply his personal position, not the position of World Athletics.”
The stance taken by World Athletics differs to that taken by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as the governing bodies of numerous other sports.
The IOC provisionally lifted Russia’s suspension in July, potentially allowing the country to compete at the 2028 Olympics Games in Los Angeles.
Other sporting federations, including World Gymnastics, World Aquatics and World Boxing, have this year removed restrictions on Russian athletes competing.
Some Russian and Belarusian athletes competed as neutrals at both the 2024 Paris Games and this year’s Winter Olympics in Milan.
