France “will release specific aid of one million euros” in favor of Ukrainian athletes with a view to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, announced this Friday the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, a year day for day after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“My ministry is going to release specific aid of one million euros to enable the Ukrainian delegation which is going to these Olympic and Paralympic Games to be as well prepared as possible,” said the minister during a meeting in Liévin (Pas-de-Calais) with Ukrainian athletes. “We want Ukraine to be embodied in the most beautiful way” during the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will be held in the summer of 2024, added the minister.
This aid will take the form of “preparation courses” and a “Games preparation center that we will try to define with the Ukrainian teams”. “We will identify the best way to make this aid as effective as possible,” she added.
The presence of Russian athletes “generates skepticism”
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra also recalled, during a press briefing, France’s position on the presence of Russian athletes in Paris in eighteen months: “For us, at this stage, the question of the participation of russian athletes, even under a neutral banner, does not arise. This “raises a whole series of questions which are very important to us and which today generate skepticism”, concerning in particular the financing of these athletes, the selection process and compliance with anti-doping regulations. “Today we have many more questions than answers on these themes,” said the minister.
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron will speak on this subject in the summer, specified Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. The International Olympic Committee, which in January sketched out a roadmap to reintegrate Russians and Belarusians into world sport, announced on Tuesday that it would “take into consideration” the concerns of a coalition of countries, including France, regarding the presence of athletes from these two countries at the 2024 Olympic Games.
