A decision to ban the Russian team from next month's PyeongChang Winter Olympics but invite "a number of carefully screened Russian athletes" was "a balance," IOC President Thomas Bach said on Wednesday, according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. Bach said that the IOC wanted a sanction "apparent to the world," but did not want to "humiliate Russia." Bach added that the IOC wanted to "give clean Russian athletes the opportunity to participate, and give a young and new generation of clean Russian athletes the opportunity to be at the Olympic Games and be ambassadors for a new clean Russian sport." An independent review panel invited a "carefully" selected list of Russian athletes to compete as independents. They will march and compete at the Games under the Olympic flag and any medal ceremonies involving them will feature the Olympic anthem instead of the Russian one. Bach: "This panel took their responsibility very seriously by making it absolutely certain ... that there is not the slightest doubt or suspicion on athletes to be invited" (REUTERS, 1/24).
