The IOC excluded all members of the Executive Board of the NOC of Belarus from its events and suspended payments

7 December 2020, 20:36 | Tribuna.com
President of IOC Thomas Bach.
Source: Deutsche Welle

According to IOC PR Director Christian Klaue, on 7 December, during a meeting of the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee it was decided to take temporary measures in relation to the NOC of Belarus. 

Alexander Lukashenko was banned from participating in the events of the International Olympic Committee. The ban also applies to the Tokyo Olympic Games, which will be held in 2021.

Measures include:

  • exclusion of all members of the NOC Executive Board from IOC events, including the Olympic Games. This includes Alexander Lukashenko, Viktor Lukashenko (first Vice-President of the NOC) and Dmitri Baskov (member of the NOC Executive Board). This provision is not applicable to Tatsiana Drazdouskaya, since she is the representative of athletes in the Executive Board;
  • suspension of all financial payments to the NOC, with the exception of payments related to the preparation of Belarusian athletes for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 and the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing 2022. All Olympic scholarships for Belarusian athletes will now be paid directly to the athletes, and no longer through the NOC;
  • request the relevant International Federations to make sure that all eligible Belarusian athletes can take part in qualification events for the upcoming Olympic Games without any political discrimination;
  • suspension any discussions with the NOC of Belarus regarding the hosting of future IOC events;
  • request all participants of the Olympic Movement to respect these measures in the interest of protecting Belarusian athletes’ rights and the reputation of the Olympic Movement.

The IOC Executive Board will continue to monitor the situation and reserve the right to consider any further action or to cancel any of these provisional measures depending on the evolution of the situation.