08 February 2023 , 18:35
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There are still no plans for Russian nor Belarusian athletes to be prevented from competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics despite mounting pressure for action to be taken.
Delegates, politicians and representatives from some competing countries have called for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to put a blanket ban in place as Russian and Belarusian forces continue to attack Ukraine. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo recently joined those criticising the invaders and said it was "not conceivable" for athletes from Russia nor Belarus to take part while the siege was ongoing.
Instead, the onus has been left with individual sports and their governing bodies to make the decision on whether to ban certain athletes. And the IOC has reiterated its position that competitors from the countries in question may still participate under neutral banners.
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“There are no plans for a Russian or Belarusian delegation or the flags of these countries at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” read a statement from the IOC, which has said a ban on athletes based on their origins would violate the Olympic charter. “The only option that could be considered are individual, neutral athletes like we have seen last year at the French Open in tennis and recently again at the Australian Open in tennis and in other professional sports.”
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Ukraine's sports minister, Vadim Guttsait, said earlier in February that the besieged nation could boycott next year's Summer Games altogether if Russian athletes played their part. That threat has since been echoed by the representatives of Poland, Latvia and Estonia.
"As long as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine, I don't want there to be a Russian delegation at the Paris 24 Games - I would find that indecent," Hidalgo told radio station France Info. "It is not conceivable [for Russian athletes] to march as if nothing had happened, to have a delegation come to Paris while the bombs are still raining down on Ukraine."
IOC president Thomas Bach isn't understood to be in favour of a ban on Russian athletes competing in Paris (Getty Images)Kamil Bortniczuk, Poland's sport and tourism minister, went so far as to warn "up to 40 countries" could abstain from the 2024 Olympics in what would be a hammer blow for the competition. Nonetheless, the IOC has shown no signs of diverting from its current trajectory.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine—which started in late February 2022—is but the latest motivation for the country to be banned from major sports competitions. Critics called for their suspension from previous editions of the Games after a state-sponsored blood-doping programme was discovered in 2019.
Its athletes have since been allowed to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and other major sports events provided they represent a neutral banner, however. The Russian Olympic Committe (ROC) was one of only five 'countries' to win 20 gold medals or more in Tokyo almost two years ago and finished fifth in the overall table.