The United States, Germany, and Australia are among 35 countries calling for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be banned from the Paris 2024 Olympics next summer.
Earlier this month, the White House said Russian and Belarusian athletes should compete only as neutral participants. But after an online meeting Friday featuring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the U.S. appears to have changed its stance to align with most of its European allies.
Of the 35 countries who attended the online meeting, only Greece, France, and Japan objected to the absolute exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes, according to Polish sports minister Kamil Bortniczuk. One possible compromise is allowing Russian and Belarusian dissidents to compete on a team of refugees, but the prospect of protesting authoritarian regimes is just as complicated and dangerous as it sounds.
“It’s not time to talk about a boycott yet,” Bortniczuk said, pointing to other methods of pressuring the IOC.
“We are going in the direction that we would not need a boycott because all countries are unanimous,” Lithuanian sports minister Jurgita Siugzdiniene added.
After the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) last month offered Russian and Belarusians a pathway to Olympic qualification via this year’s Asian Games — a decision subsequently supported by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) — Ukraine threatened to boycott Paris 2024 if Russian and Belarusians athletes were allowed to compete. The IOC responded by calling the threat premature, warning of an Olympic Charter violation, and arguing that past boycotts did not achieve their goals.
The U.S. Department of State’s statement regarding the meeting provided little clarity on America’s updated position regarding Russian and Belarusian participation at Paris 2024.
“The Assistant Secretary outlined that the United States will continue to join a vast community of nations in our unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and hold the Russian Federation accountable for its brutal and barbaric war against Ukraine, as well as the complicit Lukashenko regime in Belarus,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson said. “We will continue to consult with our independent National Olympic Committee – the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee — on next steps, and look forward to greater clarity by the IOC on their proposed policy toward Russia and Belarus.”
During Friday’s call, Zelenskiy noted that 228 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have died since Russia launched its war last February. Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said that “we know that 70% of Russian athletes are soldiers.”
“If there’s an Olympics sport with killings and missile strikes, you know which national team would take the first place,” Zelenskiy said. “Terror and Olympism are two opposites, they cannot be combined.”
On Saturday, Russian sports minister Oleg Matytsin called Friday’s meeting “unacceptable.”
“This is a direct interference of ministers in the activities of independent international sports organizations, an attempt to dictate the conditions for the participation of athletes in international competitions, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Matytsin said.
Muuuuhhh Putin bad. Must ban athletes. Much Iraq was different. Afghanistan who? No Vietnam was about stopping evil.
@mel_steward
Seems like China should be on that banned list also
Right or wrong, they’re not wanted. Unfortunately, their governments screwed them over, plain and simple.
US invasion of Iraq was a completely different situation, btw. No use in arguing politics. They’re not welcome and they’ll be lucky to be invited to anything before 2028.
How is it different?
Yeah, it was different. Because we got the oil money for Iraq.
Political posturing via sport is useless. These countries’ companies are the same ones helping Russia beat their countries’ own economic sanctions against Russia:
“Nearly a year on from the supposed Russian exodus, most major companies have yet to withdraw. By November 2022, fewer than 9% had divested at least one subsidiary in Russia. These divestment rates barely changed over the fourth quarter of 2022. Barclays analysts said that while most of the companies they cover had pledged to exit Russia, few have managed to do so yet.”
This is why we shouldn’t punish athletes. The hypocrisy, in financial terms, is gobsmacking. Now we know why the sanctions aren’t working.
We need the great Bobo Gigi to offer his almighty opinion in this article
World coming to its senses but the absence of France from the list is very disturbing and more meaningful than the remainder combined. If France supported a ban then it could take steps from preventing Russian athletes from entering or competing, like the Djokovic situation in Australia last year.
I have no doubt that Bach understands as much and has pressured France behind the scenes.
It is a bit more complex than that. The Host nation of a Games makes commitments to the IOC that all athletes will be granted access to the nation for the Games. If Host nations start picking and choosing who to allow into the country each Games it could get very ugly.
It’s already very ugly. The sheer front of Bach threatening the Ukrainians for ‘breaching the Olympic Charter’…the Russians have torn that charter to shreds for the past decade and a half – has Bach even once hinted that the ROCs membership would be imperiled if they kept doing it?
Here we go …. The possible outcome will be that Asian Games will get new names like “World Games” and later back to Olympic Games where western countries won’t be invited if they don’t behave politically as required. At the end Asia is the largest by territory and population part of the world to represent it and to call their sports games as such. They even don’t need to get back to this obsolete name as “Olympic”. Money will talk and Africa with South America will follow Russia and Belorussia in accepting gladly the invitation.
World games are already a thing ! It’s made off of all the olympic sports not in the olympic games
Bach: “The Olympic movement should stand above politics and celebrate athletic achievement regardless of colour, creed or nationality. These are principles we can never compromise”
USOC: “We might boycott and then NBC won’t pay”
Bach: “Russia’s aggression in Ukraine must be punished. No Russians, no Belarusians, and I will kill Putin with my own bare hands”
Perfect response as we all know the IOC is all about the money, no matter where they can get it and what they have to allow to happen for it to continue to come their way.