Analysis:IOC on spot over Russian presence at 2024 Olympics

BERLIN : Olympic officials are working behind the scenes to contain growing opposition to its plans for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics as the Ukraine war threatens to rekindle Cold War-era sporting frictions.

Fighting a year-long invasion, Ukraine has reacted with fury to the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) willingness to let athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus return to international competition for the 2024 Games, albeit as neutrals.

Kyiv's threat to boycott the Olympics, if Russians are there and the war is still ongoing, has been echoed by one of its staunchest supporters, Latvia, and drawn sympathy from other allies.

"If we need to make a decision now, of course we will not go to such competition," a Latvian Olympic Committee official told Reuters. "But ... we hope Ukrainian people will win this war, and we will be in a new situation."

Some 18 months before the competition is due to start, the IOC is desperate to calm the waters. A Games torn asunder by war would be an existential threat to the Olympics and its message of global peace - not to mention a huge hit to income.

    "Currently within the IOC, there is a lot of attention now on the Ukraine issue and the Russian athletes and any opposition," an Olympic movement insider told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "This is a very sensitive issue that requires a lot of the leadership's attention."

Though threats to snub the Games have been few and only theoretical so far, they have revived memories of boycotts in the 1970s and 1980s during the Cold War era that still haunt the global Olympic body today.

    "A sports boycott serves nothing," IOC President Thomas Bach said on the 40th anniversary of the 1980 Moscow Games