Ice hockey’s governing body stripped Russia of the 2023 world championships, the latest sporting consequence of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Follow our updates on the Russia–Ukraine war here.
Numerous international sports leagues and organizations have dropped Russia and Russian athletes from competition since its invasion of Ukraine in February. Belarus, which allowed Russia to use its territory to stage the invasion, has also faced some sanctions against its teams and athletes.
Some of the actions were led by athletes, and others by member federations. But they have affected sports as varied as tennis, soccer, ice hockey, auto racing and track and field. And the fallout continues: On Wednesday, Russia was stripped of the hosting rights for next year’s world ice hockey championships.
The invasion has led to something that Russia’s state-sponsored doping program never fully did: the banishment, at least partially, of Russia from global sports. Its team will not be allowed to qualify for soccer’s World Cup, and its athletes have been barred from this summer’s Wimbledon tennis championships.
We’re tracking how various leagues and organizations have responded. Here’s the latest (updated April 27).
The International Ice Hockey Federation on Tuesday stripped Russia of the hosting rights to the 2023 world championships. The federation cited safety concerns as the reason for pulling the event, but it pointedly did not mention Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or its ongoing war there, in the announcement.
A new host will be selected next month, it said.
The federation cited “concern for the safety and well-being of all participating players, officials, media, and fans.”
The IIHF Council has decided to withdraw the hosting rights of the 2023 #IIHFWorlds from Russia.
More: https://t.co/WZiyUIsmOM pic.twitter.com/XHvwQfNqTr
Earlier, the federation had banned Russian and Belarusian teams, including for this year’s world championships, and said it would not stage its junior world championship in Russia later this year.
The loss of the world championships, though, will have been a bitter blow for Russia. The ice hockey federation, under its former president René Fasel, had been a longtime ally and defender of Russia and its interests, going so far as to argue on its behalf in Russia’s doping appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The hockey world championships also were seen as one of the last sporting prizes Russia had retained since the invasion. The tournament had been scheduled to take place next May 5-21 in St. Petersburg, where a new arena had been constructed as the centerpiece for the event.
Others in hockey have moved to distance themselves from Russia. The National Hockey League, for example, suspended business dealings with Russia, but not with Russian players, including the star Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. Ovechkin said, “Please, no more war,” recently, but has not explicitly condemned Russia’s war effort and has supported President Vladimir V. Putin in the past.
Hockey executives in the Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden said that Russia would not be allowed to participate in this year’s Euro Hockey Tour, and executives signaled that they were looking to replace Russia permanently.
Electronic Arts, which makes the annual N.H.L. video game, said it would follow the international hockey federation’s penalties by removing Russian and Belarusian national and club teams from its popular NHL 22 game.
— Victor Mather and Alan Blinder
Soccer’s international governing body, FIFA, and its European counterpart UEFA took some of the most decisive action in their history by kicking all Russian club and national teams out of international competition. The ruling effectively ousted Russia from qualifying for this year’s World Cup; the country had been two wins from advancing to the tournament, which begins in November in Qatar.
UEFA has put off, for now, a decision on whether to apply the ban to Russia’s women’s national team, which is scheduled to compete in this summer’s European Championship in England. That tournament opens in July.
The ban on Russian clubs in European competition affected only one team, Spartak Moscow. It had reached the last 16 of the Europa League, but its exclusion allowed its opponent in that round, RB Leipzig of Germany, to advance the quarterfinals. RB Leipzig has since advance to the semifinals, where it will face Rangers of Scotland.
At first, FIFA had opted for sanctions similar to those in place for the recently completed Winter Olympics: a ban on Russia’s name, flag and anthem and a neutral site for its games. But strong objections from numerous countries, and declarations by Sweden, France, England, the United States and others that they would not play Russia in any circumstances, pushed FIFA to take stronger action.
UEFA, soccer’s European governing body, also stripped St. Petersburg, the home of the Russian energy giant Gazprom, of this year’s Champions League final. The game will be played in France instead. UEFA then went a step further in breaking its deep ties to Russia: It announced that it had ended a sponsorship agreement with Gazprom. The deal was worth a reported $50 million a year to European soccer.
Electronic Arts, which annually makes the FIFA soccer video game, said in a statement that in line with FIFA and UEFA it had “initiated processes to remove the Russian national team and all Russian clubs” from its games.
— Victor Mather
The International Skating Union, figure skating’s world governing body, barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from competition, sanctions that prohibited Russia, the world’s dominant figure skating country, from performing at the world championships in March.
The absence of Russian skaters meant that the reigning world champions in three disciplines and several other medalists were absent when the championships opened March 21 in Montpellier, France. If nothing else, the ban prevented a repeat of the joyless, numb moment at the Beijing Olympics, where Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old favorite in women’s singles whose positive test for a banned substance came to light during the Games, crumbled amid the intense scrutiny and was left in tears after criticism by her coach.
But the ban also meant that Anna Shcherbakova, 17, the Olympic champion, would not be able to defend her 2021 world title.
The International Skating Union said in a statement that no athletes from Russia or Belarus, which has supported Russia’s invasion, would be allowed to compete until further notice, reiterating “its solidarity with all those affected by the conflict in Ukraine.”
In their absence, and with China’s skating association refusing to send any of its competitors, the United States won five medals and Japan four — including the golds in men’s (Shoma Uno) and women’s (Kaori Sakamoto) singles.
— Jeré Longman
Wimbledon, under pressure from the British government, said it would not allow Russian and Belarusian players to participate in the tournament this summer.
Its decision went further than previous actions by tennis events and organizers; those organizations are prohibiting Russia and Belarus from competing in team events but allowing players from those countries to participate in tournaments without any national identification.
Wimbledon said they could not play at all.
“Given the profile of The Championships in the United Kingdom and around the world, it is our responsibility to play our part in the widespread efforts of government, industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible,” Wimbledon said in a statement.
“In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships.”
The Women’s Tennis Association said it was “very disappointed” with the decision, while the Association of Tennis Professionals, the men’s tour, called it “unfair.”
“Individual athletes should not be penalized or prevented from competing due to where they are from, or the decisions made by the governments of their countries,” the WTA said. “Discrimination, and the decision to focus such discrimination against athletes competing on their own as individuals, is neither fair nor justified.”
— Matthew Futterman
Formula 1’s Russian Grand Prix, scheduled for September in Sochi, Russia, has been canceled, and not just for this year. “Russia will not have a race in the future,” organizers said.
The Russian F1 driver Nikita Mazepin will be allowed to race for Haas as a neutral competitor under rules announced by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, motorsport’s world governing body. Motorsport UK’s ban of Russian-licensed drivers, however, may jeopardize his participation in the British Grand Prix in July.
— Victor Mather and Evan Easterling
A day after organizers of the Paralympic Winter Games announced that they would allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in the competition, the board made a stunning reversal and barred athletes from both countries on the eve of the opening ceremony.
Citing threats by several countries to boycott the Games, mounting discontent in the athletes’ village and fears that a “deteriorating” situation there could lead to violence, the International Paralympic Committee said the situation had changed so dramatically that the viability of the Games would be in jeopardy if organizers did not expel the Russian and Belarusian athletes.
Organizers of the Games had originally planned to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete under the Paralympic flag. The punishments would have been similar to those already in place against Russia for its involvement in a state-sponsored doping scheme.
Earlier, the International Olympic Committee had recommended that athletes from Russia and Belarus be barred from sporting events. That declaration, though, came more than two years before the next Summer Games, in Paris in 2024, so the I.O.C.’s stance could change, perhaps depending on whether and how the war is resolved.
— David Waldstein
The world governing body for track and field barred athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus from events “for the foreseeable future.”
The competitions include this summer’s World Athletics Championships, which will take place in Oregon, as well as the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
Russia’s athletics federation has already been suspended since 2015 because of doping violations, though athletes who can prove they are clean have been allowed to compete, unaffiliated from Russia. Those athletes will now be blocked from events.
— Matthew Futterman
Some Ukrainian boxers and ex-boxers have said they would take up arms for their country against the Russian invasion.
They include the former boxing heavyweight world champions Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, who are brothers; another former champion, Vasiliy Lomachenko; and a current champ, Oleksandr Usyk.
Vitali Klitschko is the mayor of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
— Victor Mather
The International Cycling Union, as part of a broad range of measures, banned teams from Russia and Belarus from international competition. The measure will effectively shut down a professional team co-sponsored by Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy company, that normally makes appearances in top-level events that include the Giro d’Italia.
The ban imposed by the International Skating Union, which will have a significant impact on the figure skating world, also covers speedskating; the long-track world championships start on Thursday in Norway, and the short-track championships are later this month in Montreal.
The World Rugby union also suspended Russia and Belarus, and the International Judo Federation suspended President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as its honorary president.
The International Weightlifting Federation suspended Russian and Belarusian athletes from competitions and will not host any events in those countries until further notice.
— Victor Mather and Ian Austen