Olympic leader Bach criticizes Ukraine for blocking athletes from some Paris Games qualifiers

GENEVA: IOC president Thomas Bach criticized the Ukrainian government on Thursday for blocking some athletes from qualifying events for the 2024 Paris Olympics that also included Russians and Belarusians.

Ukrainian athletes have in recent weeks missed world or European championship events in judo, fencing and taekwondo where Russians and Belarusians could compete after being approved as neutrals.

The IOC and Bach in March shaped the definition of neutrality — not publicly supporting the war, nor being contracted to the military since February last year, competing without flag, anthem or national colors — that sports governing bodies must decide how or if to apply.

“It is hard to understand why the Ukrainian government is depriving their own athletes from their chance to qualify” for Paris, Bach said in a keynote speech to an International Olympic Committee online meeting.

Ukrainian athletes were “being sanctioned by their own government,” Bach said, adding the IOC and Olympic sports bodies wanted to support them preparing for “any competition that they want to take part in.”

He did not specify if that could mean financial support for athletes in what appeared to suggest defying Ukrainian government and sports officials.

The IOC did not immediately respond to a request for more details.

Bach opened a 25-minute speech to IOC members insisting “our outrage of this brutal war, our compassion with the human suffering and our solidarity with the Ukrainian Olympic community remain as strong as ever.”

He criticized Russia once for “shamelessly” holding talks about creating “fully politicized sport competitions” as a potential rival to Olympic-approved events.

Those talks included China, which Bach has tried to keep as