IOC bans Latin American country’s Olympic committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Guatemala’s Olympic Committee (NOC) on Sunday due to a failure to resolve a legal dispute.
The IOC warned the Guatemalan Olympic Committee last month that it would be banned if it did not find a solution to the issue by October 15.
The NOC has been in a dispute with the Central American country’s Constitutional Court in relation to some provisions in the NOC’s regulations.
Announcing the move, the IOC explained that “no solution could be found between the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Guatemala and the relevant authorities in Guatemala within the prescribed deadlines.”
“In the interest of the athletes and the Olympic movement in Guatemala, the IOC has urged the NOC and the relevant authorities in Guatemala to meet and find an acceptable solution... which would allow the IOC Executive Board to lift the suspension of the NOC as soon as possible,” it added.
If the ban remains in place, Guatemalan athletes will not be able to represent their country at the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
The NOC will also be blocked from receiving IOC funding, and would join the Russian Olympic Committee in being frozen out of the athletics spectacle.
Russian teams have been banned from most sports after an IOC recommendation in late February in the wake of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine.
With some qualifying events already getting underway for Paris 2024, IOC president Thomas Bach recently suggested that Russian athletes would be allowed back into the international fold if they denounce the conflict between their homeland and Ukraine.
