The IOC reminds Hidalgo that there will be no Russian team in the Olympic Games, only neutral ones

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has “clarified” the mayoress of ParisAnne Hidalgo, that “there are no plans for a Russian or Belarusian delegation or the flags of these countries to be at the Olympic Games” which will host the French capital in 2024.

“The only option that could be considered“said a spokesman for the agency, “It is that there are individual and neutral athletes, as we have seen last year at the French Open tennis“, he recalled, “and recently again at the Australian Open tennis and other professional sports.”

The IOC reacted in this way to some statements by Hidalgo this Tuesday in which he was totally opposed to a Russian delegation participating in the 2024 Games “if the war still continues” in Ukraine.

“As long as Russia continues with the war in Ukraine, I hope that there will not be a Russian delegation at the Paris 2024 Games (…). It would seem indecent to me for a country to parade like nothing, to come to Paris while bombs continue to fall in Ukraine,” the councilor explained in an interview on France Info public radio.

At the end of January, Hidalgo ruled in favor of Russian athletes being able to participate under a neutral flagbut in that interview she was opposed to that possibility, which in any case does not depend on the organizers of the Games, but on the IOC and the federations.

The neutral flag “doesn’t really exist”Hidalgo said, who suggested that dissident athletes who oppose Vladimir Putin be part of the refugee team.