The International Olympic Committee (IOC) described Kosovo’s chances of sending its own Olympic team to this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing as “very unlikely”.
On February 18, IOC spokesperson Emmanuelle Moreau said, as quoted by the Washington Times, that Kosovo had to be recognised as an independent state by the United Nations before it could think of sending athletes to the Olympics. “After being recognised by the UN, Kosovo needs to meet various sports requirements before gaining Olympic status,” she said. “We have to see what that the UN decides, but it looks unlikely that athletes would be able to compete in Beijing for Kosovo because of the very short period of time.” The Beijing Olympics are from August 8 to August 24.

Moreau’s words put on hold the efforts of the unilaterally-declared independent state, a former Yugoslavian province, to form an Olympic team as part of its independence. Earlier Kosovo’s Olympic committee had announced that it could send five boxers to Beijing, if it was allowed.

Despite the message from the IOC, Kosovo still has something to hope for. The IOC could allow Kosovar athletes to take part in the Olympics as independent competitors under the Olympic flag. There have been enough precedents for this. Athletes from East Timor and the former Yugoslavia have previously done this.

The break-up of the former Yugoslavia, which started in the early 1990s, has led to the appearance of six new Olympic teams: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. Kosovo would become the seventh.