Russia “has no place” at the Paris Olympics in 2024, pleads Emmanuel Macron – Liberation

The President of the Republic took a position on Wednesday September 6 against the presence of a Russian delegation at the Games next year, but does not close the door to their participation under a neutral banner. It is the IOC who must decide.

This is enough to weigh on the dilemma of the Olympic authorities. French President Emmanuel Macron said there could “not be the Russian flag at the Games” in Paris in 2024, in a daily interview the team published Wednesday, September 6 in the evening. Russia has “no place at a time when it has committed war crimes, where it deports children”, further pushed the head of state.

Asked about the possible presence of Russian athletes in an individual capacity at the 2024 Summer Olympics, the Head of State replied: “I want it to be a decision in the conscience of the Olympic world. […] it is not the host state that should decide what the IOC should do […] I have complete confidence in Thomas Bach”, the president of the International Olympic Committee. President Macron also wanted “Ukrainians to be associated with this reflection”.

“The real question that the Olympic world will have to decide is what place to give to these Russian athletes who sometimes have prepared for a lifetime, and can also be the victims of this regime,” he continues. But how to differentiate between Russian athletes accomplices and victims of the regime? “This is the real question and therefore this is where the Olympic world has, in conscience, its opinion to give and guarantees to be specified”, supports the Head of State. “And it needs to be understood by Ukrainians […] This is the balancing act that we will have to carry out.”

In August, the Ukrainian Sports Minister, Vadym Gutzeit, hypothesized a “goodwill gesture” from Russian athletes, who would “give up going” to the Paris Olympics next year. “If Russian athletes participate in the Olympics, Russian propagandists will try to turn this celebration of sport into a celebration of propaganda, as Hitler did,” said the Ukrainian minister, referring to the organization of the Olympics summer of 1936 in Berlin by Nazi Germany.

The International Olympic Committee announced at the beginning of the year that it is studying the possibility of involving Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Paris Olympics in 2024 under a neutral banner. However, the final decision will not be taken this summer or at the IOC session scheduled for October in India. The deadline for taking it “is just before the Games”, hammered in July the boss of world Olympism Thomas Bach.