The International Fencing Federation, identified by its French acronym FIE, voted this month to permit fencers from Russia and its ally Belarus to return to worldwide competitions as qualifying for subsequent 12 months’s Olympics in Paris ramps up.

“The FIE is not fulfilling its duty of care for athletes, especially for Ukrainians. Your insufficient leadership in completely banning Russia and Belarus is being called out by athletes and civil society across the globe,” mentioned the open letter signed by the fencers, organized by two advocacy teams, Athleten Deutschland and Global Athlete.

“You have chosen Russian and Belarusian interests over the rights of athletes, notably Ukrainian athletes, and by doing so, you are failing to support the very people your organizations are meant to support.” The letter was revealed on the identical day that the board of the IOC — whose president Thomas Bach is a former fencer — was assembly to debate setting new suggestions for sports activities our bodies 16 months earlier than the opening of the Paris Games.

The IOC advisable excluding Russian and Belarusian athletes on safety grounds final 12 months following Russia’s invasion however has not too long ago sought to create a pathway for them to return to competitors.

The fencers who’ve signed embrace Lee Kiefer of the U.S., who’s the Olympic gold medalist in ladies’s foil, French males’s crew foil gold medalist Erwann Le Péchoux and four-time Olympic medalist from Ukraine, Olga Kharlan.

Billionaire Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov has been the FIE president since 2008, although he suspended himself from his duties on March 1, 2022, days after the invasion, after he was positioned underneath European Union sanctions.