The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, defended Tuesday the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to competitions under a neutral flag because, as has been seen in several sports, it is a formula that »works» and there have been »no security incidents».
»The participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports in international competitions works. We see this almost daily in sports like tennis, but also in cycling, in table tennis. We see it in ice hockey, we see it in handball, we see it in soccer and other leagues in the United States,» he said, as reported by British broadcaster Sky News.
In none of these competitions there have been security incidents,» Bach stressed during his opening speech at the IOC executive committee meeting at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, which decides whether to continue with the veto imposed on Russians and Belarusians after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The participation or not of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the upcoming 2024 Paris Games has become another issue in this war, with Ukraine threatening the IOC with boycotting the Olympic event if it allows the presence of these athletes. Kiev claims they are part of the Army machine.
On the eve of the IOC executive committee meeting, its president already defended the return of the athletes sanctioned on the basis of their passport as it would be «the decline of the international sports system» if athletes are excluded for political reasons.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)