Russia Takes Its Track And Field Ban To Sport’s Highest Court

Russia’s track and field federation is taking its ban to court. The All-Russian Athletics Federation said Thursday it has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne to overturn the World Athletics suspension that has kept its athletes out of international competition since March 2022, days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, the Associated Press reported. CAS confirmed it has received a request for arbitration but gave no date for a hearing.

“Russian Athletics notes that World Athletics’ decision affects the fundamental interests of athletics in Russia and restricts Russian athletes’ right to compete, on grounds that Russian Athletics considers discriminatory,” the federation said in a statement.

World Athletics was blunt in response: “We take note of the Russian athletics federation’s appeal to CAS, and we will be strenuously defending our position.”

One Week After The Door Stayed Shut

The appeal comes days after World Athletics voted to keep Russia and Belarus locked out at its council meeting. President Sebastian Coe said the council reviewed options for “a conditional pathway back into international competition” and chose not to take them.

“The original decision remains on the sanctions that protect the integrity and fairness of our competitions, with no tangible movement towards peace negotiations having materialised,” Coe said.

The Widening Gap With The IOC

World Athletics is increasingly isolated in holding its line. The International Olympic Committee lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee this week and cleared Russian athletes, under strict conditions including multiple doping tests and no flag or anthem for now, to enter team events and qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“We made it clear that we wanted to ensure all athletes have the possibility to compete at the Olympic Games and not be held responsible for their government’s actions,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry said, per Athletics Illustrated. Gymnastics and skating have eased their restrictions, and volleyball’s governing body said Wednesday it will welcome back Russian teams at all levels. Ukraine called the IOC’s move “premature” and “unfounded.”

World Athletics has heard the push before and refused to budge.

A Decade On The Outside, And LA28 At Stake

Russia’s exile from track and field is much older than the war. The country has not competed under its own flag at a world championships since 2015, when its federation was suspended over state-sponsored doping. A neutral-athlete program bridged the years between, but it was shut down after the invasion, and while the doping suspension was formally lifted in 2023, the war ban replaced it without a gap. Russia remains one of the most-represented countries on the sport’s ineligibility list.

The stakes of the CAS case reach directly to Los Angeles. Because World Athletics controls the qualification system for Olympic track and field, its ban kept Russians out of athletics at Paris 2024 even as the IOC admitted neutral athletes in other sports. Unless CAS or the federation itself changes course, the same will be true in 2028, whatever the IOC allows.

Coe, who has visited Ukraine during the war, has said that if a peace agreement is reached, sport should not stand in the way of Russia’s return. For now, the two sides will argue about what happens before then.