Runners from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to compete in the Boston Marathon on Monday, another example of the two countries’ growing isolation due to the invasion of Ukraine.
“Like many around the world, we are horrified and outraged by what we have seen and learned from press reports in Ukraine,” Tom Grealke, president of the Boston Athletic Association, who runs the marathon, He said in a statement. “We believe running is a global sport, and as such, we must do what we can to show our support for the people of Ukraine.”
Citizens of Russia and Belarus residing in other countries will still be allowed to participate.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, in cooperation with Belarus, resulted in both Russia and Belarus being barred from a growing list of international cultural and sporting events, in addition to the economic and diplomatic sanctions they faced.
Russia was not allowed to send an official national team to the last Olympics, after revealing systematic doping, but the punishment was mainly indicative; The Russian national team competed under different names. The 2022 Winter Games concluded in Beijing shortly before the Russian invasion on February 24.
The International Olympic Committee then recommended that athletes from Russia and Belarus be barred from future events. FIFA has banned Russia from qualifying for this year’s Men’s World Cup. Other sports bodies have taken similar measures.
The Boston Athletic Association’s ban has been applied to the shorter 2022 races it organizes, but the most famous is the marathon, one of the world’s most popular races. It is scheduled to be April 18, back to its traditional timing on Patriots Day, a holiday celebrated by several states to commemorate the start of the American Revolution.
Due to the Covid pandemic, the 2020 race has been canceled and the 2021 event has been postponed until last October.
The federation did not say how many Russians or Belarusians took part in this year’s race, but those countries are not remote powerhouses. In the last Boston Marathon before the pandemic, in 2019, out of more than 30,000 participants, Only 56 were from Russia Three are from Belarus.
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