IOC urges Ukraine to drop Paris 2024 boycott threat

3 years ago 72

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The building of the Russian Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee has urged Ukraine to drop threats of boycotting Paris 2024 if Russian and Belarusian athletes compete.

IOC president Thomas Bach has told Ukraine's Olympic Committee that such threats are "extremely regrettable".

Ukraine is hoping to gain international support for a ban on athletes from the two countries over Russia's invasion.

The IOC has said it will "explore a pathway" for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals.

Ukraine's sports minister, Vadym Guttsait, who is also president of its Olympic Committee, responded by saying the country could boycott the Paris Games, with several other European nations since also calling for the ban to be upheld.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said allowing Russian athletes to compete at the 2024 Olympics would amount to showing that "terror is somehow acceptable".

In a letter from Bach to Guttsait, which has been seen by the BBC, the IOC president says comments from Ukrainian officials suggesting allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes would promote the war are "defamatory".

Bach added that threatening a boycott is "premature" because the IOC has not discussed the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals in "concrete terms yet".

He also accused Ukraine of "pressuring" international federations, IOC members and future Olympic hosts "in an attempt to publicly influence their decision making" and claims this has been "perceived by the vast majority of them as, at the very least, extremely regrettable".

More to follow.

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