The IOC has also recommended a ban on athletes who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian militaries or national security agencies.

Russia and Belarus are also set to be banned from taking part in team sports, such as handball and volleyball.

Following the first day of the Executive Board's three-day meeting, IOC President Thomas Bach claimed that the governing body was still deliberating over the inclusion of Russia and Belarus at next year's Olympics in Paris.

Bach claimed it "was not appropriate" to offer a timeline for a decision on the matter stating multiple times that the IOC Executive Board had not discussed Paris 2024 yet, but merely the "return to international sport".

He was, though, firm in his recommendation that any athlete which openly shows solidarity with Russia and its war in Ukraine should not be allowed to compete.

Under the conditions released by the IOC the definition of team sports and team events should follow the International Federation's own regulations.

At the re-arranged 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Russia won 21 medals in team sports and events, including seven golds.

"The IOC Executive Board today issues, to the International Federations and international sports event organisers, the following recommendations: athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport must complete only as individual, neutral athletes," Bach said. 

"Two - teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport cannot be considered.

"Three - athletes who actively support the war cannot compete.

"Four - support personnel who actively support the war cannot be entered."

Should International Federation follow these recommendations, it would decimate Russia's medal chances.

At Tokyo 2020, the Russian Olympic Committee took home 71 medals - the best result for a team of athletes from the country since Athens 2004 where the country won 90.

Nearly half of the podium finishes in the Japanese capital were achieved by members of military and law enforcement organisations.

Fencer Sofya Velikaya, who won the team gold medal and silver in the individual event in Tokyo, is an armed forces captain.

She has already stated that she will not compete at the Olympics without Russia's flag and anthem.

The 26-year-old Vitalina Batsarashkina claimed two Olympic shooting gold medals and one silver at the Games and faces being sanctioned as she is a lieutenant with the National Guard.

The IOC has warned that athletes and their support staff must refrain from any activity or communication associated with Russian or Belarusian national symbols at all competitions.

In order to enforce this, it has recommended relevant bodies take strict measures.

"In an event of any athlete failing to respect the strict conditions of participation, the International Federation and sports event organisers concerned should immediately remove them from the competition and suspend them from any further competitions," IOC director for the athletes department Kaveh Mehrabi told insidethegames.

"You will see here that with this criteria we are trying to address the point of any athletes making statements related to the war."

There are concerns that it will be difficult to know who supports Russia and Belarus' war, unless they have already explicitly done so, and as such the IOC recommendations will be easily bypassed.

In March 2022, shortly after Moscow had launched its invasion of Ukraine, several Olympic athletes took part in a rally that featured an address by Russian Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Medalists from cross-country skiing, gymnastics, figure skating and swimming gathered on stage at the Luzhniki Stadium as part of the concert and entertainment program around Putin's speech.

Double Olympic swimming gold medallist Evgeny Rylov, a sergeant in the Moscow Police, was banned for nine-months by World Aquatics as a result of his appearance at the event. 

The IOC has received criticism for its refusal to make a decision on the two countries competing at Paris 2024.

"We are not kicking [the decision] down the road," Bach said.

"We are not waiting.

"We all would like the war to end now and this is what we are calling for, but as you can see from all the reasons we are giving the conditions are not related to the development of the war they are related to the respect for the Olympic Charter and the Olympic Values.

"In fact, we have to address these questions whether somebody is actively supporting the war in whichever way and we have to also respect the clear statement of the United Nations (UN) rapporteurs."

Despite this, the UN Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights Alexandra Xanthaki claimed that Russian soldiers who have already fought in Ukraine should be allowed to appear at Paris 2024.

The Greek suggested that only Russians directly implicated in crimes against humanity or propaganda for war should be barred from international sport.