On the occasion of the 115th anniversary of the Russian Olympic Committee, Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned the possibility of his country hosting the Olympic Games again.
This Sunday, Vladimir Putin celebrated the 115th anniversary of the Russian Olympic Committee in grand style during a ceremony in St. Petersburg. The Russian president (73 years old) took the opportunity to make a rather surprising announcement: he would like to see his country host the Olympic Games again. “Russia is open to hosting future Summer and Winter Olympic Games,” he said. The country has hosted the Olympics twice, in Moscow in the summer of 1980 and in Sochi in the winter of 2014. “Each time with an exceptionally high level of organization and creativity, recognized by the IOC,” Putin added.
Rules slightly relaxed since 2025
A bold statement considering the current situation of Russian sports, which has been banned from most international competitions due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which began in February 2022. Since the start of the war, Russian (and Belarusian) athletes have been excluded from many competitions (FIFA World Cup, Davis Cup, Biathlon World Cup…) or could only participate under a neutral flag, without anthem or flag. However, since 2025, the rules have been slightly relaxed, and some Russians have regained their colors, especially during judo competitions, and at the recent Winter Paralympic Games in Milan-Cortina, where they finished third in the medal standings. For the 2026 Olympics, the “neutral flag” rule remained in place. Neutral athletes had only won one medal, a silver in ski mountaineering.
Before the war, the scourge of doping…
Even before the war in Ukraine, state-sponsored doping in Russia had led the IOC to ban Russian athletes from the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021 Olympics. It seems like a very long journey for Russia to be able to host the Olympics again. This will obviously require an end to the war.
