KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (AP) – Badminton upheld its ban on Russian and Belarusian players in international competitions yesterday, days before Olympic qualifying begins.
Badminton’s qualifying period for next year’s Paris Olympics starts on May 1 and uses a calendar-year ranking.
Meanwhile, modern pentathlon said it would set up a “pathway” for athletes from the two countries to return but didn’t commit to a date.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) cited security concerns and the need for “more clarity” on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) “complex criteria” to admit some Russians and Belarusians as neutral athletes without national symbols but keep excluding others, such as military personnel or those who have supported the invasion of Ukraine.
The IOC also recommends allowing athletes from only Russia and Belarus to compete individually and not in team sports or “team events in individual sports.”
That raises the prospect in badminton of players being allowed to play singles but not doubles as a national team, a point the BWF did not address directly in its statement yesterday.
The recommendations from the IOC last month aren’t binding on sports’ governing bodies, which can implement them as they wish. The IOC has said it hasn’t made a decision on what happens at the Paris Olympics.
