No access to the celebration in Paris
Russians and Belarusians excluded from Olympic opening
March 19, 2024, 6:18 p.m
Athletes from Russia and Belarus are not allowed to take part in the athletes’ parade at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The head of the International Olympic Committee made this decision against the backdrop of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
Russia’s athletes will not be allowed to take part in the parade at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided in Lausanne that the athletes from Russia and Belarus who compete as “neutral” must take on a spectator role at the spectacle on July 26th with 160 boats on the Seine.
Because of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian athletes are only allowed to compete at the summer games in the French capital under certain conditions. The Russian flag, the anthem and other state symbols are banned. The athletes are also not allowed to have any connection to the military, and teams are not allowed at all.
In addition, last fall the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee for violating the Olympic Charter because the ROC had accepted the sports organizations of the annexed Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk as members. Russia considers the requirements to be “illegal, unfair and unacceptable,” said Stanislav Posdnyakov, head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). The Russians recently ruled out a boycott of the Olympics.
A few hours earlier, the IOC had gone on a confrontation course with the Russian government because it saw its own interests threatened. In a statement, the IOC called Russia’s plan to host “friendly games” in September “a cynical attempt to politicize sport.” The IOC called on all nations invited by Moscow to refuse to take part in the competition and to refuse any form of support.
The IOC criticizes Russia’s “very intensive diplomatic offensive”. “In order to make their purely political motivation even clearer, they deliberately bypass the sports organizations in their target countries,” wrote the IOC during the executive meeting led by President Thomas Bach. The Athletes Commission “clearly rejects the abuse of athletes for political propaganda.” After the IOC had maintained close relations with Russia for years and offered President Vladimir Putin a platform with the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, the relationship has cooled.