lausanne the international olympic committee is to explore a proposal allowing russian and belarusian athletes to compete in international sporting events in asia it was announced fridayathletes from russia and belarus were banned from international competition in february after moscows invasion of ukrainebut at the olympic summit in lausanne the ioc said it would lead the further exploration of a proposal by the olympic council of asia oca to host athletes from the two countriesthe oca offered to facilitate the participation of athletes from russia and belarus in competitions in asia under its authority while respecting the sanctions in place the ioc saidthe olympic summit brings together leading figures in the olympic movement including ioc president thomas bach international federation leaders and in this case stanislav pozdnyakov president of the russian olympic committee there was no representative from ukraine listedin the course of the debate the acting president of the olympic council of asia oca stated that on the asian continent the reasons for the protective measures no longer exist the ioc said in reference to banning athletesrepresentatives from the international federations ifs welcomed this initiative stating that for some ifs and for hosts of their competitions the same reasoning would apply and that therefore there should not be a onesizefitsall solution but that each if should carefully evaluate for its sport whether the reasons for the protective measures still existwhile most international federations followed the iocs recommendation in february to ban russian and belarusian athletes the question is already being asked over their participation in the 2024 paris olympics and inclusion in asiabased events would allow them to take part in games qualifierstheir participation in international sport was a big dilemma that had been politicised by individual governments intervening to block them bach said wednesday while upholding the sanctions on the russian and belarusian states and governmentswe need to explore ways to overcome this dilemma to come back to sporting merits and not to political interferencethis question of participation of athletes is very different from that of sanctions