Citing a “unifying mission” during a time of war, the International Olympic Committee said no athlete should face discrimination based only on the passport they held.FILE – The Olympic rings are set up at Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower, a day after the official announcement that the 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be in the French capital, in Paris, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. The budget for the 2024 Paris Olympics is expected to go up by 10%, in part because of high inflation, organizers said Tuesday, Nov.22, 2022. The organizing committee, known as COJO, had an original budget of around 4 billion euros ($4.1 billion) but will present a revised figure at a board meeting next month that is expected to reach 4.4 billion euros ($4.5 billion). (AP Photo//Michel Euler, File)(AP)
The IOC made clear Wednesday it wants Russians to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics as neutral athletes, in defiance of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call to exclude them entirely.
Citing a “unifying mission” during a time of war, the International Olympic Committee said no athlete should face discrimination based only on the passport they held.
“A pathway for athletes’ participation in competition under strict conditions should therefore be further explored,” the IOC said in a statement published after an executive board meeting.
IOC president Thomas Bach did not hold his usual news conference after the meeting.
Russia was not directly condemned in the statement though athletes who have been “actively supporting the war in Ukraine” face being excluded from the Paris Olympics that open in 18 months’ time, the IOC said.
The IOC cited the example of Yugoslavians competing at the 1992 Barcelona Games — as “independent athletes” while the nation was under United Nations sanctions during a civil war.
