The International Fencing Federation has come out in favor of a return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to competition.
AFP learned the news from a national federation that took part in the extraordinary congress of the FIE.
The decision of the FIE concerns the individual and team events and will be effective from April 2023 ‘subject to possible future recommendations / decisions of the IOC’, specified this source who does not wish to be identified.
Fencing thus becomes the first sport to reintegrate athletes from Russia and Belarus, one year following their exclusion due to the war in Ukraine.
The members of the FIE, meeting in an extraordinary congress in Lausanne on Friday, voted around 65% in favor of the return to competition of Russian and Belarusian athletes, teams and officials, we learned from the same source.
The international body had to position itself due to the imminent start of the qualifying phase for the Paris Olympics, which begins in April 2023 and will last until spring 2024.
Russian fencers, among the best in world fencing, won three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, while competing under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee.
/ATS
