UK government performs U-turn as it backs decision to allow Russian athletes to compete at Paris 2024 despite previously leading the revolt against the IOC's stance

The Government has amazingly backed the decision to let Russian athletes compete at Paris 2024 – just a year after leading the revolt against the International Olympic Committee’s controversial stance.

Sports minister Stuart Andrew has written to IOC president Thomas Bach confirming that the UK is now willing to support the participation of Russian and Belarusians as neutrals at this summer’s Games.

It is a major U-turn from the Government’s previous position, with then culture secretary Lucy Frazer chairing a summit of 35 nations last spring to put pressure on the IOC to uphold their ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus over the war of Ukraine.

Frazer even wrote to Olympic sponsors asking them to support a ban and said that ‘as long as Putin continues his barbaric war, Russia and Belarus must not be represented at the Olympics’.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport insisted on Monday night that their position had only softened after seeing the IOC’s strict framework for which individual athletes from the two countries can actually compete.

As well as performing under a neutral flag, any athletes found to actively support the war in Ukraine, or who are contracted to the military, will not be permitted to participate in Paris. Russia and Belarus are also not allowed to enter any team events.

Any medals won by neutral athletes will not be counted as a collective group in the overall medals table. At medal ceremonies, a jade green flag will replace the usual ones for Russia and Belarus and a specially written anthem without lyrics will be played.

The federations of the individual Olympic sports can still decide to ban Russian and Belarusians and some, including Lord Coe’s World Athletics, have done so.

Last month, the IOC announced they expected only around 36 neutral athletes from Russia and 22 from Belarus to qualify for Paris.

The British Olympic Association has long supported the IOC’s framework, as has the host nation France.

But the U-turn by the Government is a surprise and one they seemingly wanted to keep quiet, given Andrew’s letter to Bach was initially not made public – unlike the previous statements made by Frazer.

In a letter to sponsors last year, Frazer said: ‘We know sport and politics in Russia and Belarus are heavily intertwined, and we are determined that the regimes in Russia and Belarus must not be allowed to use sport for their propaganda purposes.

‘As long as our concerns and the substantial lack of clarity and concrete detail on a workable “neutrality” model are not addressed, we do not agree that Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed back into competition.’

Sources believe DCMS’s hardline stance has been impossible to maintain ever since they supported the All England Club’s decision to let Russian and Belarusian tennis players compete at last year’s Wimbledon as neutrals.