2023-10-24 10:47:00
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 10 minutes ago, Updated 9 minutes ago
Thomas Bach INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / AFP
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recalled Monday that he would “closely” follow countries that do not respect this principle, in a direct allusion to Russia.
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach estimated on Monday that politicizing sport “would be very harmful”, reminding follow “from close» countries that do not respect this principle, in a direct allusion to Russia.
Visiting Montevideo for the 100th anniversary of the Uruguayan Olympic Committee, Mr. Bach explained to the press that he benefits “great support from the international community for the unifying power of sport. I hope that the next debate on the Olympic Truce Resolution, which will take place at the United Nations in November, will bring us a new surge of support», he added, while the call to respect this truce, whose tradition dates back to the ancient Games, is launched before each edition of the Games.
Thomas Bach said that the IOC was following “from close» the attempts of certain countries to “politicize sport and replace sporting competitions like the Olympic Games, which are politically neutral games organized by civil society, with events organized by the government“. This statement comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin assured last week that “new organizational and legal forms» in the form of leagues, associations and clubs were to come “undermine the current system» and thus replace the “monopole» which according to him are represented by the major structures of international sport such as the IOC.
«This is an announcement from Russia. We are following this closely, of course“, said Mr. Bach. “We are convinced that the world will realize that politicizing sport would be very harmful to society“, he said, recalling that the “mission you sport” was “to organize competitions between nations which, at a certain moment, are politically friendly“. Vladimir Putin also accused the IOC of using the Games as “an instrument of political pressure”, and to carry out a “ethnic discrimination» due to limitations on the participation of Russian athletes in the Paris Games next year. Accusations “firmly» rejected by the international committee, which must still decide whether or not the Russians and Belarusians will be present in 2024. The latter were banned from all international competitions after the launch of the offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.
Since then, in March 2023, the IOC has recommended their reintegration into non-Olympic competitions, provided that they compete under a neutral banner, on an individual basis, and that they do not have “actively supported the war in Ukraine“. In September, Russians and Belarusians were authorized by the International Paralympic Committee to participate in the Paralympic Games in Paris, under neutral banner and strict conditions of neutrality. Finally on October 12, the Russian National Olympic Committee (NOC) was suspended with “immediate effect» for having placed under his authority several organizations in occupied Ukrainian regions.
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