International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry's stance that "politics does not take over on the field of play" is facing sharp criticism, with Ukrainian officials and former IOC executives telling AFP that sport and politics remain deeply intertwined.

Coventry's position faces an immediate test as Ukrainian and Russian athletes prepare to compete alongside each other at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal.

Under the current framework, 13 Russian athletes will be permitted to parade under their national flag and hear their national anthem—marking the first time Russian national symbols will feature at an Olympic event since the 2020 Winter Youth Games in Lausanne.

The restoration of such symbols fits with the approach that Coventry indicated she would follow when she spoke at the EU Sporting Forum in Cyprus earlier this year.

"Athletes can only inspire us if they are able to compete," the Zimbabwean two-time Olympic swimming gold medallist said.

"They can only do so if we keep sport strictly neutral ground, if politics does not take over on the field of play," she added.

Ukraine Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi dismisses that view.

"Any conversation about returning Russian athletes to the international arena can only happen after the war ends, a just peace is established, every single abducted Ukrainian child is returned home, and international law is fully restored," he told AFP.

"Until that moment, isolation is not political -- it is a matter of basic human decency."

Former International Olympic Committee marketing executive Terrence Burns dismissed the notion of isolating athletics from global affairs, telling AFP that "sport has never been separate from politics."

Calling assertions to the contrary "naive at best and cynical at worst," Burns emphasized that the Olympic movement's true foundation rests on neutrality and remaining strictly independent of government influence.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has avoided using political boycotts—a tactic that disrupted three consecutive Summer Games between 1976 and 1984, ultimately inflicting more damage on the IOC than on the targeted nations.

"The boycott agenda of the eighties very nearly destroyed the Olympic movement," Michael Payne, a former IOC marketing chief, told AFP.

"Eventually the politicians began to understand that maybe it was a good idea for the world to come together through sport."

Burns and Payne concede that the African boycott of the 1976 Montreal Games was effective because it highlighted a multilateral campaign to isolate apartheid South Africa from world sport.

"The lesson is that a boycott works when it is sustained, collective and aimed squarely at the wrongdoer," Burns said.

Former IOC marketing director Michael Payne warns that international sport is once again increasingly vulnerable to political interference, arguing that governments over the past decade have routinely weaponized athletics to dictate participation and impose sanctions.

In his book Fast Tracks and Dark Deals, Payne identifies this growing political weaponization as the single greatest threat facing the future of global sport.

Despite these tensions, the intersection of sports and diplomacy has occasionally served as a vehicle for unity.

A prominent example includes North and South Korea—nations technically still at war—parading under a unified flag at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and fielding a joint women's ice hockey team at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

Though hopes of a lasting improvement in relations failed to materialise, Burns believes it was an example of how sport can offer a tantalising glimpse of what could be possible.

"Sport opens doors but it can't make anyone walk through them," said Burns.

"Still, I think an open door is worth a great deal when every other one is shut."

While Coventry has pursued a line of neutrality, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been accused by his critics of crossing the line in his close friendship with US President Donald Trump.

Awarding him the FIFA Peace Prize was widely ridiculed.

"It was a fake award, with no public criteria, jury or process," said Burns.

"I think that changed the perception of FIFA from working with a political leader to endorsing one. That's not neutrality."

Infantino has also opened the gates to Russia, who are competing at the Under-15 football World Cup this month, and has said the ban on the country has not "achieved anything, it has just created more frustration and hatred".

Bidnyi told AFP he "totally rejects this logic".

"Removing these bans would send a terrifying signal to any future aggressor: that you can invade a neighbour, commit atrocities, and still be welcomed at global tournaments as if nothing happened."