The American Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) said on Monday that it was in favor of the reintegration under a neutral banner of Russian and Belarusian athletes, excluded from international competitions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, for the Olympic Games-2024 in Paris. There was a “unanimous interestamong delegates at a recent International Olympic Committee (IOC) summit to find a way forward for those athletes to return to competition, U.S. officials said.
«There is a real desire for this to happen because our mission is to peacefully bring the world together around sport.“, explained the president of the USOPC, Susanne Lyons, to journalists. “The Olympic movement can hardly tolerate these athletes being banned from competing“, did she say.
The reintegration of Russian and Belarusian athletes into competitions in Asia, the first step before international reintegration, was discussed during the “Olympic Summitin Lausanne on December 9, which notably brought together American, Chinese and Russian delegations, but no Ukrainian representative. There “neutralityof Russian and Belarusian athletes would avoid the risk of boycotts as in the 1970s and 1980s.
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“The essence of the Olympic and Paralympic movement will quickly disappear”
«There are conflicts around the world every day, countries at war every day, and if people decide to boycott things back and forth – “You did not come to our Olympics, we will not go to yours” – the essence of the Olympic and Paralympic movement will quickly disappearsaid Ms. Lyons. But this neutrality must bestrict» et «there can be no colors or country name“, she pointed out.
At the Winter Games in Beijing in February, Russian athletes were only able to compete under the colors of their Olympic committee because of sanctions after doping scandals, but many still wore Russian-colored suits.
Olympic officials also want to look into the idea of conditioning the return of athletes on their assurances that they never supported Russia in the Ukraine dispute, although Ms Lyons acknowledged that it could be “impossible” to do. “But there is an agreement on (a return) athletes who have not actively supportedMoscow, she pointed.
