The organizers of the next Olympic Games in Paris, set for summer 2024, have confirmed to CNN that they will respect the position of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the event.
In a document sent to CNN, a spokesperson for Paris 2024 stressed that the classification system is not up to the organizers of the event, but to the IOC itself, the Paralympic Committee and the international federations.
The International Olympic Committee this week outlined several steps to be taken so that Russian and Belarusian athletes could participate in next year’s Olympic Games, as well as in the Paralympics in Milan in 2026, stressing that no athlete should be discriminated against «because of his or her passport».
This proposal has not sat well in Ukraine, from where the country’s own president, Volodimir Zelenski, harshly criticized the IOC’s stance, and even one of his top advisors accused the body of being «promoter of war, murder and destruction» and benefiting from money stained with Ukrainian blood.
In response, the IOC came out to recriminate Kiev’s position and stressed that athletes from Russia and Belarus would not be allowed to compete under national symbols under any circumstances, and that the attendance of authorities from both countries would be totally forbidden. The organizers of Paris 2024 have joined in on this point.
In response to the uproar, the spokesperson for the 2024 Olympiad in Paris has conveyed the event’s full solidarity «with Ukraine, its people and the Ukrainian Olympic and Paralympic movements», which are facing «an unimaginable crisis».
«Our wish is that the Olympic and Paralympic movements and athletes enjoy the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in a spirit of peace and respect for the values of fraternity and solidarity,» the spokesman concluded.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
