Russian athletes are seeking the assistance of human rights organizations and global sporting governing bodies to push to end sweeping sanctions by World Athletics that have continued after four years.
In an open letter to the International Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission, the IOC Advisory Committee on Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the athletes are appealing for a return to competition following a widespread ban directly tied to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“For us, this is not an abstract legal or political issue. Athletics is our life,” the athletes said in their letter obtained by Reuters. “Four years is a long time in any life. In an athlete’s life, it can be the most significant years.”
Their letter was dated September 10 and is another of a series of attempts by Russia to repeal a longstanding move by World Athletics to uphold what it believes is in the interest of the integrity of competition.
The All-Russia Athletics Federation filed legal action with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July to end the ban, with a second lawsuit issued in August that explicitly noted that the sanctions continued to “infringe” its ability to operate normally as an organization.
RusAf’s legal steps came soon after World Athletics was clear that despite holding internal discussions on the matter in 2023, 2025, March 2026 and in early July, there would be no loosening of any portion of the restriction.
“We presented options for the Council to consider on this matter, however, the original decision remains on the sanctions that protect the integrity and fairness of our competitions, with no tangible movement towards peace negotiations having materialized,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said at the time.
World Athletics was among the first organizations to impose stiff penalties on Russia and unlike other governing bodies, the sanctions remain in place and are likely to hold through the end of the year.
Other major powers in sports have taken a different stance and in July, Russia got a major lift toward global participation when the IOC relaxed nearly three years of sanctions and offered a path back to competition in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), World Archery, World Aquatics and International Skating Union all lifted restrictions in the past year, which included Belarus, who staged some of the military action against Ukraine from within its borders.
“Athletics remains one of the very limited exceptions where Russian athletes continue to face a full blanket exclusion,” the letter said.
The tone of the letter, while direct, is a milder tone than a statement in early September from RusAF executive director Boris Yaryshevsky, who accused Coe of holding a grudge against that has drastically altered the course of Russian athletics.
“Here, it’s clearly evident that he has something personal in mind,” Yaryshevsky said in a interview published by Russian state media. “That is, he’s no longer speaking on behalf of World Athletics as a federation; he’s speaking on his own behalf, saying he’ll personally defend the case in court. These are public comments. And I believe this is simply his personal position. It’s not the position of World Athletics. We know; we’re communicating with various sports officials there. It appears that this is a personal grudge, the dissatisfaction of one individual, who is essentially standing in the way of Russian track and field athletes’ return to the world stage.”
Coe, however, will abide by World Athletics’ council’s recommendations to keep the ban in place, and during the Ultimate Championship in Budapest this over the weekend, he told reporters that there is a distinction between the spirit of competition and matters of government.
“This isn’t about politics or passports. It’s about the integrity of competition,” Coe said. “We want a full complement of people on a global level competing in our sport, and that has to be our overall objective.
