PARIS (Reuters) – France’s Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games on Thursday described criticism of Russia as “grotesque” following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from parading at the the opening ceremony of Paris 2024.
“It’s grotesque. The words that were used are shocking and grotesque,” said Amélie Oudéa-Castéra during a press conference presenting the 2023 results in the fight against sexual and gender-based violence in sport.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova deemed the IOC’s decision “unfair and unacceptable”.
“These decisions demonstrate the extent to which the IOC has moved away from its declared principles and has fallen into racism and neo-Nazism,” she added.
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“I think that the IOC and the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) have both been both clear and consistent in the decisions they make, to ensure that Russia does not parade in an opening ceremony,” said Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
“This does not mean that neutral individual athletes will not be able to sit at the Trocadéro.”
“What we want is that there is not a Russian delegation parading, that there is not the Russian state parading,” insisted the minister.
(Reporting by Vincent Daheron, editing by Sophie Louet)
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