The International Olympic Committee’s executive board on Tuesday provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, a move that dismantles the most significant institutional barrier to Russian athletes competing under their own flag at the Los Angeles 2028 Games. The decision, announced from Lausanne, immediately voids the 2022 and 2023 recommendations that had barred Russians from team sports and required individual athletes to pass a neutrality review. Instead, the IOC declared those restrictions “no longer applicable,” clearing the way for full participation in Olympic qualifiers that are already underway.

The reversal was grounded in a narrow legal argument. The suspension, imposed in October 2023, was triggered when the Russian Olympic Committee incorporated regional sports councils from the occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia—a move the IOC deemed a violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. On Tuesday, the IOC said its legal affairs commission had determined that those councils are no longer part of the Russian body, and that Moscow had confirmed it “does not, and will not, conduct any activities in these territories.” The executive board reserved the right to reimpose measures if that changes, but for now the original rationale for the ban has been removed.

On the ground, the ruling resets the competitive landscape. Russian athletes can now enter team events and will no longer be vetted for links to the military or for public statements on the war. The IOC, however, deferred a decision on whether the Russian flag, anthem and colours will be permitted at the Games themselves, saying only that it would rule “at the appropriate time.” Individual international federations retain full autonomy: World Athletics and the International Biathlon Union immediately reaffirmed their own bans, while sports such as judo, taekwondo and aquatics had already readmitted Russians with full national symbols. The IOC also stressed that it will not organise events in Russia or invite government officials, and that all returning athletes must undergo multiple independent doping tests—a nod to the lingering distrust from the state-sponsored doping scandal that has shadowed Russian sport since 2015.

Reactions split along predictable geopolitical lines. Moscow’s sports minister, Mikhail Degtyarev, called the decision a “green light” for a full return, and foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova hailed a “victory of common sense.” Ukrainian officials, by contrast, described the move as “troubling” and urged host nations to maintain bans on Russian state symbols. Athlete advocacy groups Global Athlete and FairSport, with bases in North America and Europe, issued a joint statement accusing the IOC of lowering its accountability standards. The IOC’s president, Kirsty Coventry, defended the step, insisting that “athletes should not pay the price” for their government’s actions, while reiterating the organisation’s condemnation of the war and its continued support for Ukraine’s Olympic community.

The immediate sporting consequence is that Russian teams and individuals can now pursue qualification for Los Angeles 2028 across all disciplines where federations comply. The fractured response, however, means the return will be uneven: some sports will welcome Russians back with full honours, others will keep them out entirely, and the question of the flag will hang over the Games until the IOC’s next ruling. For now, the Olympic movement has opted to reopen the door, but the terms of entry remain contested.