Coventry's Winter Test

New IOC president faces challenges over Russian debate with next Games looming

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PARIS — International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry is in the spotlight over how she handles her "baptism of fire" over Russia, former IOC executives have told AFP.

With just six months to go to the opening ceremony for the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, the odds are that Russian athletes — normally a Winter Games superpower — will have to compete under a neutral banner, owing to the country breaching the Olympic Charter.

The IOC excluded the Russian National Olympic Committee after it had placed under its authority several sports organisations from Ukrainian regions that Russian forces now occupy.

That move came after President Vladimir Putin — not for the first time in his country's turbulent relationship with the IOC — broke the Olympic Truce when he launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

While the IOC under Thomas Bach permitted Russian athletes to compete as neutrals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, some federations took harsher stances.

World Athletics barred all Russian and Belarusian athletes from competitions, as did other federations.

The scenario is no different for winter sports, with the International Ski Federation, biathlon and luge taking a similar stance, though figure skating has not followed suit.