After International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that it is planning to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics, many countries have strongly protested against it. In such a scenario, as many as 40 countries may boycott the next game and that would make the whole event pointless.
Last week, the IOC said it is exploring pathways to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in Paris under a neutral flag. The organisation categorically mentioned that “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport”.
Soon after this, Ukraine threatened that if that happens then their athletes would boycott the Paris Olympics. Later, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland also pointed out IOC’s push to bring back Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete, even under a neutral flag, should be rejected.
The sports ministers of all these countries said, “Efforts to return Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sports competitions under the veil of neutrality legitimize political decisions and widespread propaganda of these countries.”
They further called on “all international sports organisations and federations” to remove Russian and Belarusians athletes from international competitions until the war ends.
Disapproving of the IOC’s move, the United States government has also said that they support the suspension of Russian and Belarusian sport governing bodies from international sports organisations and is also encouraging organisations to stop broadcasting events into both countries.
Meanwhile, IOC reiterated no decision has been taken yet in this regard but, it categorically warned Ukraine and other nations about the implications of threatening a boycott.
“Threatening a boycott of the Olympic Games, which the NOC of Ukraine is currently considering, goes against the fundamentals of the Olympic movement and the principles it stands for,” the IOC wrote in a question-and-answer document published on Thursday.
“A boycott is a violation of the Olympic charter, which obliges all NOCs to ‘participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes’. As history has shown, previous boycotts did not achieve their political ends and served only to punish the athletes of the boycotting NOCs.”
- Agencies