World Triathlon bans Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials

Following a recommendation by the IOC yesterday, World Triathlon says that it will not allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes or officials in all international competitions or official events.

“This extreme measure is taken to protect the integrity and safety of all athletes participating in the events and the integrity of the global sports competitions,” World Triathlon said in a statement today.

While the IOC had recommended that federations not organize events in Russia or Belarus, World Triathlon had already suspended the Russian Triathlon Federation last year “due to the high number of doping cases,” so “no events were permitted to take place in the country in 2022.”

Ironman and Challenge both have races scheduled to take place in Russia this year – Ironman and Challenge Family both have events slated to take place in Russia this summer – Ironman 70.3 St. Petersburg is slated for July 17 this year. Challenge Family announced Challenge Moscow last March – t’s scheduled for June 26, 2022. In today’s statement World Triathlon says it “will work with Ironman and Challenge in order for them to follow these recommendations as well.” Presumably that means both banning Russian athletes and officials, and also not organizing events in Russia or Belarus this year. We’ve reached out to both organizations for comment and will update this story as information becomes available.

Last week Ironman told us that it would be “working through the evolving guidance from the relevant governmental authorities and governing bodies and federations” – we’ll wait to here how this guidance will affect Russian athletes and the Russian events.