European lawmakers want Olympics ban for Russia, Belarus

GENEVA — European lawmakers urged the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Paris Games rather than keep seeking ways to let them compete as neutrals in international sport.

The 46-nation Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held a two-hour session in Strasbourg, France, of its panel for sports issues. It was to help draft a future report on the question of barring the two countries' athletes and officials from the Olympic movement because of the military invasion of Ukraine.

With 15 months until the opening ceremony in Paris, Olympic sports bodies are weighing the IOC's formal request — a reversal of its advice last year for exclusion — to look at reintegrating some Russians and Belarusians into games qualifying as individuals, but not in team events.

«Imposing a war has to have a clear consequence. Sport also has to take its responsibility,» Danish lawmaker Mogens Jensen said, adding the «only one clear message to send» was excluding athletes.

The Council of Europe was created after World War II to advocate for freedom and protection of minorities. It expelled Russia as a member last year.

Opening the session Tuesday, PACE president Tiny Kox, a longtime senator in the Netherlands, acknowledged that for many people letting Russians compete at the Paris Olympics was a «totally unthinkable» prospect that could «serve propaganda purposes of the aggressor.»

The IOC was invited and Estonian lawmaker Indrek Saar expressed deep regret that the Olympic body's president Thomas Bach did not come to Strasbourg.

Instead, the IOC delegation consisted of former Olympic athletes from Armenia and Namibia, plus Francesco Ricci Bitti, who leads the umbrella