Thomas Bach Volodymyr Zelenskiy Russia Ukraine Moscow Belarus Paris athletics Thomas Bach Volodymyr Zelenskiy Russia Ukraine Moscow Belarus Paris

IOC president Bach urges Ukraine to drop Paris boycott threat

channelnewsasia.com

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has called on Ukraine to drop threats of a boycott of the 2024 Olympics over the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes.Ukraine hopes to secure widespread international support for a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes after the IOC opened the door for them to compete as neutrals in Paris.Athletes from Russia and neighbouring Belarus, which aided Moscow's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, have been banned from many international competitions since.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the IOC to ban Russia from the Olympics, and Olympic bodies and lawmakers in the Nordic and Baltic regions have backed Ukraine.In a letter to Ukraine's National Olympic Committee (NOC)president Vadym Huttsait, seen by Reuters, Bach said claims that allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes back into the Games would promote the invasion were "defamatory".The IOC has said a boycott will violate the Olympic Charter and that its inclusion of Russian and Belarusians is based on a U.N.

resolution against discrimination within the Olympic movement."The participation of neutral athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 has not even been discussed in concrete terms yet," Bach said."Therefore, your letter...

to your fellow NOCs, to the International Federations, IOC Members and to future Olympic hosts, pressuring them in an attempt to publicly influence their decision making, has been perceived by the vast majority of them as, at the very least, extremely regrettable."It is the responsibility of every NOC...

to uphold the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter."The IOC announced last month that athletes from the two countries

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Russian athletes should publicly denounce the war if they are to be allowed to participate in the 2024 Olympics, Kyiv mayor and former world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko told AFP Monday. "Russian and Belarusian athletes can't participate in the Olympic Games in Paris if they don't say 'no' to war," Klitschko said. "If they publicly express against this war, they can (participate). But they're afraid," the former heavyweight boxer said. Russia and its ally Belarus, which allowed its territory to be used as a launchpad when Moscow began its invasion of Ukraine last February, have been sidelined from most Olympic sports since the war began.
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