the international olympic committees executive board has recommended that international sports federations ban russian and belarusian athletes and officials from competing in events the ioc said on monday following russias invasion of ukrainethe ioc said the executive board made the decision in order to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participantsthe russian olympic committee categorically disagreed with the ioc saying the decision contradicts both the regulatory documents of the ioc and the olympic charteras a first step we consider it necessary to send requests to international federations for an official response on the status of russian athletes and their rights to participate in international competitions due to the fact that it is the federations that have the authority to admit athletes to international competitions in the respective sport the roc said in a statementfor its part the russian olympic committee intends to consistently uphold the rights and interests of russian athletes and provide all necessary assistance to our national federations to challenge discriminatory decisions of the relevant international federationsthe statement from the ioc comes shortly before the winter paralympics which starts in beijing on friday the international paralympic committee ipc will meet on wednesday to discuss russia ahead of the gamesiocs statement falls shortathletes from ukraine and other nations have urged the ioc and ipc to suspend russia and belarus and ban their athletes from events immediatelythe global athlete movement which aims to empower athletes said the iocs statement falls shortthe ioc refuses to fully suspend the russian belarus noc it said on twitter the ipc needs to immediately suspend the russian and belarus paralympic committees olympics paralympics athletes have seen these pr stints in the pastthe ioc also strongly urged federations to ensure that no athlete or sports official from russia or belarus would be allowed to take part under the name of russia or belarusrussian or belarusian nationals be it as individuals or teams should be accepted only as neutral athletes or neutral teams no national symbols colours flags or anthems should be displayed the statement addedhowever the board said that in very extreme circumstances the board would leave it to the relevant organisations to effectively address the dilemmain this context the ioc eb considered in particular the upcoming paralympic winter games beijing 2022 and reiterated its full support for the international paralympic committee ipc and the games the statement addedolympic order withdrawn from putinthe ioc reiterated its recommendation not to organise any sports event in russia or belarusthe ioc also said it had taken the ad hoc decision to withdraw the olympic order the highest honour granted by the ioc from all persons who currently have an important function in the government of the russian federation including russian president vladimir putinit said it made the decision based on the exceptional circumstances of the situation and considering the extremely grave violation of the olympic truce and other violations of the olympic charter by the russian government in the pastukraines