Latvia threatens Olympic boycott if Russia is included

Latvia would not send athletes to an Olympic Games that included Russian and Belarusian nationals while the invasion in Ukraine is ongoing, a spokesperson for the country's Olympic committee said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said last week it is open to including Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals at the 2024 Paris Games and has opened a door to them competing in qualifiers.

"If we need to make a decision now, of course we will not go to such competition. But the Paris Games is a year and half away. We will see what happens in Ukraine - we hope Ukrainian people will win this war, and we will be in a new situation," the spokesperson told Reuters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the IOC into banning them from the sport's extravaganza, but there has been little public support yet from other nations for an outright ban on Russians at Paris.

The Paris 2024 Olympics will be held from 26 July to 11 August and the Paralympics from 28 August to 8 September.

Latvia, which borders Russia, has been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine in the European Union and NATO, together with its Baltic neighbours Estonia and Lithuanian.

Neither the Lithuanian nor Estonian National Olympic Committees are considering boycotts of Paris Olympics, their chairs told domestic media on Tuesday.

Foreign ministers of the three countries and Poland on Tuesday agreed that Russian and Belarusian athletes in Olympics are "unacceptable" so long as the invasion continues, Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics said.

The Baltic ministers of sport will meet on Thursday to discuss a joint appeal to the IOC to ban Russian and Belarus sportsmen from all international competitions, Lithuanian Minister of Education, Science and