Zelensky asks Macron to prevent Russian athletes from participating in the 2024 Olympics – Liberation

The President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, spoke out at the end of 2022 for an extension of sanctions against Russia.

Sports diplomacy will have been at the center of the call between Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron this Tuesday. “I particularly insisted on the fact that Russian athletes should not have their place at the Paris Olympics”, declared on Telegram the Ukrainian president after a telephone conversation with the French head of state.

Russia invaded Ukraine from its territory and that of Belarus on February 24, just three days after the closing ceremony of the Beijing-2022 Winter Games, in violation of the Olympic Truce (which extends from one week before the start of the Olympic Games to one week after the end of the Paralympic Games). The International Olympic Committee (IOC) quickly sanctioned Moscow and Minsk. Since then, no international sporting event has been organized or supported in Russia or Belarus. Not to mention that no national symbol of these countries is now displayed during a sporting event.

Extended sanctions?

On the occasion of the New Year, the President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, had indicated in a message that he wanted to see his sports sanctions extended in 2023. “These sanctions against Russian and Belarusian states and governments must and will remain firmly in place,” he had launched.

“We want to see a strong team of […] Ukraine at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics,” he pressed, recalling “the total commitment of the IOC and the entire Olympic Movement in favor of this solidarity”.

In mid-December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that Russian athletes be placed in a “complete isolation” of all international competitions. He had also indicated to Thomas Bach his firm opposition to the position of the American Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which had declared itself in mid-December in favor of the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the Paris Olympics on condition that ‘they don’t wear the colors of their countries.

In response to this banishment, Russia has continued to adapt to continue to exist on the sports scene. Multiplying the fallback national tournaments should in particular enable the Kremlin to maintain the support of these athletes, who are set up as examples or even tools of propaganda. This request from the Ukrainian president, however, again raises questions about the consequences of this ban for Russian athletes who sometimes publicly express their opposition to this invasion and embark in spite of themselves in this war.