Russian athletes “should not” participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, urged the President of Ukraine, Volodymir Zelensky, to his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in a telephone conversation on Tuesday, the day the Russian invasion completes 11 months .
“I particularly insisted that athletes from Russia should not participate in the Paris Olympic Games,” Zelensky wrote on his Twitter account. Telegram after his conversation with Macron.
Russia invaded Ukraine from its territory and Belarus on February 24 last year, three days after the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
This attack violated the Olympic truce, applied from one week before the start of the event and which lasts until one week after the end of the Paralympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) quickly sanctioned Moscow and Minsk, and since then, no international sporting events have been organized in these countries. Nor is it allowed to display their flags in international competitions.
In his New Year’s message, IOC President Thomas Bach said the sporting sanctions will extend through 2023.
“These sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian states and governments must be maintained and will be firmly maintained”, Bach said, reiterating “the total commitment of the IOC and of the entire Olympic movement in favor of this solidarity”.
In mid-December, Zelensky called for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be “completely isolated” from any international competition.
The Ukrainian president was also against the proposal of the United States Olympic Committee, which allowed athletes from those two countries to participate in the Paris Games as long as they did not represent their flags.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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