Representatives of 35 countries, including the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Japan, have unanimously agreed to demand the withdrawal of Russian and Belarusian athletes from participation in the Olympic Games in 2024. This was announced by Lithuanian Sports Minister Jurgita Syugzdinene on Friday.
The move adds pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is desperate to avoid conflict by hosting the world’s biggest sporting event.
An online meeting with the participation of representatives of National Olympic Committees and sports ministers from 35 countries was convened at the initiative of the Baltic States, Northern Europe and Poland. They call on international sports organizations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in this online meeting and told its participants that the principles of Olympic neutrality cannot be applied in the event of a Russian war in Ukraine.
Previously, Ukraine had threatened to boycott the Paris Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes took part, and Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk said for Russians it would be ‘medals of blood, death and tears’ if they were allowed to compete.
Such threats have brought back memories of the Cold War-era boycotts of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. These boycotts are still assessed differently within the IOC.
Earlier, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach called on Ukraine to drop boycott threats. The IOC allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutral athletes, without a flag or anthem. He said the boycott would violate the Olympic Charter and that the inclusion of Russians and Belarusians was based on a United Nations resolution against discrimination in the Olympic movement.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said earlier that Russian athletes should not participate in the 2024 Olympics, but the Paris 2024 Olympics Organizing Committee will abide by the IOC’s decision on this matter.
At a press conference after the online meeting on Friday, Polish Sports Minister Kamil Bortnichuk proposed the creation of a separate team of Russian and Belarusian refugee athletes to compete in the games.
“Now is not the time to talk about a boycott yet,” Bortnichuk said. There are other ways to pressure the IOC that could be explored first, he said.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on Friday that the Czech Olympic Committee was against the return of athletes from Russia and Belarus to international competitions as long as Russia’s war against Ukraine continued. However, the Czech Republic has no intention of boycotting the Paris 2024 Olympics if athletes from both countries are allowed to participate in these games.
