Russia was not invited to the Olympics in Paris. What will happen now
The National Olympic Committees of Russia and Belarus did not receive invitations to the Summer Olympic Games in Paris today.
A decision on their participation will not be made at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) conference in October, committee head Thomas Bach told reporters. According to him, the decision on the issue of admitting Russians and Belarusians to participate in the 2024 Olympics will depend on “the development of the situation.” As Bach clarified, the IOC will not set any strict deadlines for resolving this issue.
“We will be closely monitoring what happens at the qualifying competitions because we want to be as sure as possible that everyone affected by the recommendations and the Olympic Charter adheres to the letter and spirit of these conditions. Once we have a clear picture, we will make a decision. We will not set a specific deadline. Because we feel like if we set a certain deadline, we'll end up with a situation where everyone is doing well until that date, and then things get out of control,” Bach said.
He called speculation that the IOC is choosing between admitting Russian and Ukrainian athletes to the Olympics.
In Kyiv, they considered this another “victory” that Ukraine achieved with the help of the United States.
“The McFaul-Ermak group proposed last year not to allow athletes from these countries to compete. We are grateful for the decision. It is also important that Russian and Belarusian athletes are not allowed to participate in the Olympics and other competitions at all and cannot even compete under neutral flags,” Andriy Ermak, head of the office of the President of Ukraine, wrote in his TG channel.
For Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, the IOC decision was not news.
“The IOC has long since transformed from an organization defending the interests of athletes into a structure where gerontocracy and the monopoly of selected nations flourish. Our country has vast experience, motivation and prospects to independently create formats on the scale of the Olympic Games and even better. Russia will not be isolated from international sports,” Chernyshenko said.
He announced the holding of the International University Sports Festival in Russia with the participation of representatives of the SCO, BRICS, and CIS. In 2024, the Future Games, Friendship Games, and BRICS Games will be held for the first time.
Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko believes that today's decision will “bury” the Olympic movement.
“Now the hour of judgment has come - if the decision on non-admission is finally made, then the Olympic movement can be buried,” she said.
Russian political bloggers took the IOC's decision lightheartedly.
“We are now having our own Olympics. Which we must win. And we’ll sort this out later,” wrote journalist Yulia Vityazeva.
“The stupid debate “to go without a flag/not to go” will finally end,” says political scientist Armen Gasparyan.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó believes that allowing Russian athletes to the Olympics could contribute to peace in Ukraine.
“A fully inclusive Olympics could be a great help in the peaceful resolution of military conflicts, in particular the war in Ukraine... The Olympics should not be about politics, but about sports and athletes, the Olympics has a real peacekeeping mission,” Szijjártó wrote on the American social network.
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