AusLeisure

World Skate has finally decided to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from its competitions - pivoting on their previous decision to allow them to participate as neutrals.

World Skate announced that it “stands in solidarity with Ukraine and strongly supports the recommendations issued by the International Olympic Committee on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions.”

World Skate also clarifies that no events are scheduled to take place in Russia or Belarus in 2022.

World Skate will continue to monitor the situation closely and may further adapt its measures according to future developments.

The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has drawn a range of punitive measures across the sporting world with Russia officially stripped of the UEFA Champions League final and Formula One dropping this season's Russian Grand Prix in Sochi.

The International Olympic Committee urged sports federations to move their events out of Russia and its ally Belarus while the SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit, scheduled to have held in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg from 15th to 20th May 2022 has been cancelled.

The urging caused a ripple effect across the sporting community with many IFs following the IOC’s lead.

However, until now, World Skate chose to follow the IOC’s softer sanction of allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, meaning their national symbols, colours, flags and anthems could not be used.

Related Articles

25th March 2022 - FINA strips Russian city of Kazan of 25-metre World Swimming Championships

4th March 2022 - ASM Global, Live Nation and Oak View Group pledge to end doing business with Russia

4th March 2022 - Paralympics Australia endorses IPC decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from Beijing Paralympics

2nd March 2022 - FIBA release statement on Russian teams and officials

28th February 2022 - Swimming Australia welcomes FINA decision to cancel Russian-hosted World Junior Championships

27th February 2022 - FINA cancels World Junior Championships in Russia

25th February 2022 - SportAccord cancels World Sport and Business Summit due to have been held in Russia

10th March 2022 - World Skate appoints James Karageorgio as Oceania’s Chairperson

15th August 2021 - World Skate reflects on skateboarding’s contribution to Tokyo 2020 Olympics

9th December 2020 - World Skate announces skateboarding officially added to Paris 2024 Olympic Games

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.