IOC clears way for Russians to participate in Paris Olympics

by

The IOC (International Olympic Committee) paved the way for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. world.

Last Tuesday (24), Ukraine’s leader asked French President Emmanuel Macron to ban Russians from the Games in the French capital. On Wednesday (25), a communiqué released by the IOC elaborated a roadmap for the reintegration into the international sporting community of athletes who did not express support for the war.

“No athlete should be prohibited from competing solely on the basis of their passport,” the body said, after consultation with representatives of athletes, international federations and national Olympic committees, citing the “unifying mission of the Olympic movement”.

This Thursday (26), the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, joined the IOC and declared that she was in favor of the participation of Russian athletes in the games, as long as they do not wear the Russian colors or flag.

“We shouldn’t deprive athletes of their competition, but I think and ask, like a large part of the sports movement, that there be no delegation under the Russian flag,” she explained to France 2 radio, suggesting that sportsmen present themselves “under a neutral flag”.

According to the committee’s document, “Governments should not decide which athletes can participate in which competitions and which cannot”. And, so far, one of the strategies put forward by the committee for the participation of Russian athletes in the Paris Olympics is the qualifying competition in Asia, instead of Europe, where tempers, more heated, could generate hostilities and potential conflicts.

The IOC said it appreciated the “offer from the Olympic Council of Asia”, but has not yet publicly committed to this strategy.

The committee’s statement also reiterated the Olympic movement’s solidarity with Ukrainian athletes and sanctions against Russia and Belarus, including that no flag, anthem or any other identification of these countries may be displayed at any sporting event.

This sanction has everything to generate discomfort and conflicts, as has been happening at the Australian Open, when the Russian flag has been seen in the audience, including in a group that included the father of Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic – expelled from the games of the last year for not having taken a vaccine against Covid-19.

The case has precedent in the Barcelona Olympic Games, in 1992, when athletes from the former Yugoslavia participated in the event as independent sportsmen, without a flag or anthem. At the time, the country was going through a war that resulted in thousands of deaths, cases of ethnic cleansing and the fragmentation of the country into five other nations, which later became six states.

Last December, Zelensky had rejected that possibility after a meeting with the head of the IOC, Thomas Bach.

“One cannot try to be neutral when the foundations of peaceful life are being destroyed and universal human values ​​are being ignored,” he declared at the time, suggesting the “complete isolation of the terrorist state from the international stage”, including from international sporting events.

Kiev said Russian forces had killed at least 184 Ukrainian athletes since the start of the war in February 2022. “A white flag or any neutral flag is impossible for Russian athletes as all their flags are stained with blood.” said the Ukrainian in a video released after the meeting with the IOC.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you