More than half of the Russian and Belarusian athletes cleared to compete at the Paris Olympics have links to military or national security agencies or have shown support for the war in Ukraine, according to a human rights group.
A total of 33 out of 59 athletes were in violation of the International Olympic Committee’s guidelines on participation at the Games, a 223-page report from The Hague-based Global Rights Compliance concluded.
Wayne Jordash, the body’s president and a human rights lawyer who’s also part of an advisory group set up to aid Ukrainian law enforcement investigate war crimes, said the IOC in June acknowledged his letter expressing concerns but wouldn’t discuss the matter in substantive terms and has ignored two further letters.