“Ethnic discrimination”
IOC reacts sharply to Vladimir Putin’s attack
October 20, 2023, 7:01 p.m
Vladimir Putin launches a verbal attack. He accuses the International Olympic Committee of “ethnically discriminating” against Russian and Belarusian athletes. The association is outraged and reacts sharply to the Kremlin chief’s accusation.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has firmly rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s accusation of “ethnic discrimination” against Russian and Belarusian athletes. “Participation in the Olympic Games is by no means a human right, and the recent amendment to the Olympic Charter has nothing to do with it,” the IOC said in a statement: “It is a response to the violation of the Olympic Charter by the Russian and Belarusian governments .”
Putin had accused the IOC of discriminating against Russian athletes by suspending the Russian National Olympic Committee (ROC). As a result of this decision, athletes are not allowed to compete under their national flag at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The IOC had suspended the ROC with immediate effect for a “breach of the Olympic Charter” after the ROC admitted the sports organizations of the annexed Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk as members and thereby “violated the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine”. .
However, the suspension should have no impact on the final decision on the participation of athletes from Russia in the Summer Games. As IOC spokesman Mark Adams clarified, the recommendation to the world associations to integrate Russian and Belarusian athletes as “neutral athletes” remains in force and the decision will be made “in due course.” The ROC exclusion was welcomed by the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). Ukraine also expressed relief.