IOC condemns Ukraine threat

Dhe International Olympic Committee has condemned Ukraine’s threat to boycott the Paris 2024 Summer Games. The threat violates the fundamentals of the Olympic Movement and the principles it stands for. “It is extremely unfortunate to escalate this discussion at this early stage with a boycott threat,” the IOC said. The participation of individual neutral athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 has not yet been discussed and decided, it said.

“A boycott is a violation of the Olympic Charter, which obliges all NOCs to participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes,” the Q&A statement continued. As history has shown, previous boycotts have not achieved their political goals and have only served to punish the athletes of the boycotting National Olympic Committees (NOC).

The IOC around President Thomas Bach had recently triggered a controversy with the announcement that it wanted to open up opportunities for athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international competitions despite the war in Ukraine. This could also open the way for these athletes to the games in Paris, albeit only under a neutral flag. Ukraine had sharply criticized the IOC initiative and threatened a boycott. This Friday, a possible boycott is expected to be discussed at an extraordinary NOK general assembly in Kyiv.

“40 countries will take a very clear position”

Meanwhile, opposition to plans to reintegrate athletes from Russia and Belarus into world sport is growing. Poland’s Sports Minister Kamil Bortniczuk promptly announced that more than three dozen countries would take a clear stance against the IOC’s efforts. “I think that in the coming week 40 countries will take a very firm and very clear position against Russians and Belarusians starting at the Olympics,” Bortniczuk said on Polish state television when announcing a video conference of sports ministers from numerous nations on February 10 (Thursday ).

In his statement, the member of the Polish government assumed that the United States, along with the members of the European Union (EU) and Great Britain, would also oppose the IOC. However, Washington only made it clear on Thursday that it would support IOC President Bach’s course.

Bortniczuk had already made initial progress in establishing an international alliance against the IOC project and thus against the participation of Russians and Belarusians in the Olympic competitions and also the previous elimination competitions before his TV appearance. Bortniczuk and his colleagues from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania disapproved of the IOC’s strategy.

“We condemn the efforts of the IOC to bring athletes from the aggressor states Russia and Belarus back to international competitions. These efforts under the veil of neutrality also legitimize political decisions and widespread propaganda by these two countries through sport as a distraction from illegal aggression against Ukraine,” the quartet wrote.

In its stance, the IOC relies on expertise from the United Nations (UN) and great support in the international community. However, there is a lot of opposition from many states.