IJF allows Russian and Belorussian athletes to compete at their events

Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, Russian sports athletes have faced sanctions from a number of sporting bodies. As previously mentioned in this article, amateur Russian MMA fighters were banned from fighting under the IMMAF organization.

However, just a couple of days ago the International Judo Federation announced that Russian and Belorussian athletes could compete in their upcoming IJF Ulanbatoor 2022 Grand Slam event as neutral competitors. This would mean that they could still turn up and fight, but would not be allowed to represent their respected countries. To make this firmly clear, the IJF article headline read, “Judo is the sport for peace, unity, and friendship.”

In a lengthy statement, the IJF wrote “We strongly believe that to discriminate against a neutral athlete is against human rights. The International Judo Federation strongly condemns the war in Ukraine and we hope that peace will be restored very soon.”

This would not be the first time that Russian Judoka’s have had to compete under neutral status either. In the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Russia was banned due to doping but still had a number of Russians compete under neutral status.