With the ongoing war of aggression that Russia has unleashed on Ukraine, the IFBB Elite Pro has issued a statement saying that Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials are banned from competitions until further notice. Since Russia first began its assault on Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, multiple sporting organizations have banned athletes from participating in any events for the time being.
This announcement is sure to shake things up for 2022 as there was a scheduled IFBB Elite Pro event to take place in Russia at the beginning of April. We can only imagine the event below is off the table for now.
WHAT IS IFBB ELITE PRO?
The IFBB Elite Pro League is a newly formed bodybuilding and fitness federation that began in 2017 after the IFBB and NPC/Pro League split up. Since its conception, the IFBB Elite Pro has produced some big names including Andrew Jacked who recently won his pro card at the 2022 Arnold Classic. The IFBB Elite Pro has a wide reach internationally with 190 affiliated federations and is recognized by more than 90 Olympic committees.
IFBB ELITE PRO BANS RUSSIANS AND BELARUSIANS
On March 8th, 2022 the IFBB Executive Committee released a memo that stated the banning of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials for the time being. This announcement is in line with other sporting organizations including the IOC (International Olympic Committee).
Here’s a look at the memo released by IFBB:
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The IFBB Elite Pro isn’t the first sporting organization to ban Russians and Belarusians from competing. CrossFit also took a similar stance when they announced on March 1st, 2022 that they won’t recognize both countries and their flags have been removed from the leaderboard.
We expect more organizations will take a similar position as this thoughtless war continues to take countless lives. We can only hope there is a resolution on the near horizon as war is never the answer, the innocent are often the ones who suffer the most.
Kiel DiGiovanni
Author