The New York City Marathon will not bar Russian and Belarusian runners from participating in the race, despite a Ukrainian running club’s petition calling on organizers to impose a ban. 

The Ukrainian Running Club of New York last month launched a petition seeking the ban, maintaining New York Road Runners, which organizes the marathon, would be “implicitly normalizing” the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the killing of Ukrainian civilians by failing to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes. 

“The banning of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competition is not meant to be seen as a punishment against them,” the club wrote. “Russian and Belarusian athletes can join us in solidarity by not participating in this year’s events, for what pride would they have in representing their countries when their armed forces are causing these horrors?”

In a statement, however, NYRR said it would “not discriminate against individual runners based on their nationality or country of birth.”

“New York City is one of the most multicultural cities in the world where individuals of different nationalities live together,” the organization wrote. “As part of our organization’s values, NYRR welcomes runners of all ages, backgrounds and abilities — and runners who are participating as individuals will be allowed to run in NYRR races and events.” 

NYRR did not invite any Russian or Belarusian “elite athletes” to participate in the race and did not partner with any Russian or Belarusian “companies or partners,” the group noted, adding that it would not “allow or recognize any official representation or country affiliation of Russia or Belarus at any NYRR races, events or programs including the TCS New York City Marathon Opening Ceremony and its Parade of Nations.”

“NYRR ensures that no Russian or Belarusian individuals subject to U.S. sanctions are registered for NYRR races,” the group said. “Runners impacted by the war have received a full refund of their entry fee or their entry was deferred to the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon.”

The NYRR said there were 11 runners that recieved refunds or deferrals. 

“NYRR reaffirms that it continues to strongly condemn Russia’s devastating and unjust invasion of Ukraine. As members of the global running community, we stand in solidarity with Ukraine,” the group went on to say. “Violence is never a solution, and we stand alongside those impacted by war throughout the world.” 

As of Monday, more than 1,000 people had signed the running club’s petition.