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Ukraine rose up against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which declared, on Wednesday 25 January, ” to study » the possibility of authorizing the participation under a neutral banner of Russian and Belarusian athletes, who are excluded from most international competitions.
Ukraine persists and signs. For kyiv, it is unthinkable to see Russian and Belarusian athletes participating in the next Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Ukrainian presidency accused the International Olympic Committee of being a ” promoter of war after the IOC said it was studying the possibility of seeing athletes from Russia and Belarus compete under a neutral banner next summer in the French capital. ” No athlete should be banned from competition on the basis of their passport alone “, Estimated the IOC.
#IOC is a promoter of war, murder & destruction. The IOC watches with pleasure RF destroying ???????? & then offers ???????? a platform to promote genocide & encourages their further killings.
Obviously ru-money that buys Olympic hypocrisy doesn’t have a smell of ???????? blood. Right, Mr. #Bach?— Mykhailo Podolyak (@Podolyak_M) January 30, 2023
Since then, kyiv has expressed its incomprehension and anger. President Volodymyr Zelensky pointed the finger at the hypocrisy by Thomas Bach, the head of the IOC, refusing to see a delegation parade under a neutral banner: “It is obvious that any neutral flag of Russian sportsmen is stained with blood “. Ukrainian Sports Minister Vadym Gutzeit went further, raising the threat of a boycott.
British and Danish solidarity
Several countries aligned themselves with the Ukrainian position and showed their solidarity. The British Minister for Culture, also in charge of Sport, has “condemned any initiative that would allow (Russian) President Vladimir Putin to legitimize his illegal war in Ukraine “. Same story with the Danish Olympic Committee which judged ” unacceptable to allow Russia and Belarus to participate at the Paris Olympics.
While France will be the host country of the 2024 Olympics, the mayor of the French capital, Anne Hidalgo, spoke out in favor of the participation of these athletes, but under a neutral banner. ” I think this is a moment for athletes and that athletes should not be deprived of their competition. But I think and I plead, like a large part of the sports movement, for there to be no delegation under the Russian banner “, she explained on France 2.
Tony Estanguet, President of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, returned the “hot potato”. ” The Organizing Committee does not have to intervene in the choice of the delegations which must take part in the Games. When the Olympics take place in different continents, it is not the organizing committee of the country that decides which countries are authorized to compete. We will wait for the rules laid down “said the boss of the Paris Olympics.
The IOC recalls that the international federation of each sport concerned at the Olympic Games has ” sole authority in the matter.
Excluding Russia
In football, the governing bodies reacted quickly to the Russian invasion, which began on the night of February 23 to 24, 2022. Four days later, FIFA and UEFA decided to exclude Russia from the Cup qualifiers. World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
In the process, Russian clubs were excluded from all European competitions for the 2022-2023 season and the Russian women’s selection was banned from participating in Euro 2022 in England. Finally, UEFA relocated the Champions League final. Originally planned in Saint Petersburg, Real Madrid had raised its 14e cup with big ears on the lawn of the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis.
Same situation in basketball where Russian clubs were suspended in Euroleague and Euro Cup and Moscow was banned from competition by FIBA.
The International Cycling Union, for its part, suspended three Belarusian teams and three Russian teams, including Gazprom-Rusvelo. In tennis, players from Russia and Belarus have been banned from the lawn at Wimbledon by the British organizers of the grand slam tournament. But they were still able to participate in the other ATP and WTA tournaments under a neutral flag.
Neutral banner in Tokyo and Beijing
Russian athletes have previously competed under a neutral banner. During the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020 and in Beijing for the Winter Olympics 2022, the anthem and the Russian flag were absent after an arbitrary Sports Court decision which excluded Russia from all major international competitions during two years because of state doping system ».
Already in 2016 in Rio, Russia was at the heart of a controversy over its participation. A few months before the Brazilian meeting, the former boss of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, a refugee in the United States, had unveiled a cheating system developed by the Russian authorities. But the IOC refused to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee and asked each international federation to ensure that the athletes lined up at the Rio Games were clean athletes.
The International Athletics Federation had suspended all Russian athletes except those who had trained abroad. The long jumper Darya Klichina was thus the only one from her country to participate in the athletics events.