Ukraine is ready to request a ban on the participation of Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Olympics

Ukraine hopes to garner broad international support for a total ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Paris 2024 Olympics due to military aggression, Ukraine’s sports minister said on Tuesday.
Vadim Gutzeit, a former Olympic fencing champion, told Reuters the idea of ​​allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in the Olympics even under a neutral flag is unacceptable.
“It’s impossible for us at a time when there is a full-scale war, when our athletes, our soldiers are defending our homeland,” he said in a recorded interview in his office at the Ministry of Sports in Kiev. near a wall with portraits of Ukrainian athletes who died in the war.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee announced that it was ready to include Russian and Belarusian athletes in the list of participants in the next Olympics, provided that they use a neutral flag, and gave them a chance to participate. in qualifying competitions, prompting Kiev to launch an international campaign to prevent Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the 2024 Olympics.
Moscow said on Tuesday it would welcome any decision by the IOC allowing Russian athletes to compete in the Olympics. But hours later, the IOC said it supported the sanctions imposed on Moscow and Minsk as part of the military aggression against Ukraine.
“Sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian states and their governments are non-negotiable. They were unanimously confirmed at the recent Olympic Summit on December 9, 2022,” the IOC tweeted.
The sanctions include a ban on inviting Russian and Belarusian officials to international sporting events, as well as a ban on holding sporting events in the two countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that “Russia’s politicization of sport will invariably mean the justification of terror.”
According to Vadim Gutzeit, at least 220 Ukrainian athletes and coaches were killed during the war. Gutzeit himself won Olympic team gold in fencing in 1992 as part of the so-called unified team, which included 12 of the 15 former Soviet republics. He also coached the Ukrainian national team which won the 2008 Games.
“Ukraine will unite with many countries, and [российским участникам] will not allow it,” he added, saying that 40 countries provided Ukrainian athletes with accommodation and help to train abroad during the war.
Other countries have yet to voice their support for a direct ban on the Russian team’s participation in the 2024 Olympics.
The IOC’s initial recommendation to ban the participation of Russians and Belarusians in international competitions was supported by many sports federations.
However, last week the IOC backed a proposal by the Olympic Council of Asia to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete in Asia, which could potentially include Olympic qualifying.
If that happens, Ukrainian athletes will have to make a “very difficult decision” regarding a possible boycott of the Paris Olympics, Gutzeit said.
“When we lose so many people, so many athletes, the lives of Ukrainians are more important to us than any medals in international competitions,” he said.
In recent days, Ukrainian officials have accused the IOC of promoting “violence, massacres, destruction” with the idea of ​​providing Russia with a “platform to promote genocide”.
The IOC has called this slander and said such remarks do not contribute to a constructive discussion.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “only a free world acting together can protect sport from…bureaucrats who, for whatever reason, are ready to turn a blind eye to reality”.
On Tuesday, former world boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, now mayor of Kiev, urged IOC chief Thomas Bach not to betray the Olympic spirit and become “an accomplice in this disgusting war”.
Due to high-profile doping scandals, the Russian team has been forced to compete without a flag or anthem at the Olympics and major international events for the past few years.