Ukraine stepped up efforts on Friday to foyer worldwide sports activities leaders towards Russia’s participation in subsequent yr’s Paris Olympics as there are indicators the Games may face the largest boycott for the reason that Cold War.
A gathering of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee didn’t decide to a boycott however permitted a plan to seek the advice of and persuade sports activities officers all over the world over the subsequent two months.
Committee members voted to “prevent the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in all international competitions and consult on a possible boycott”. The International Olympic Committee is pushing to permit athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete on the 2024 Paris Games. They will take part as “neutral athletes” with out their nationwide flag or anthem. The IOC, which beforehand advisable excluding Russians and Belarusians from the World Games on safety grounds, argues that it can not discriminate towards them on the idea of citizenship, citing feedback from UN officers.
Ukraine desires Russia and Belarus to be banned from the Olympics altogether. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that any impartial flag could be “stained with blood”. Also on Friday the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania urged the IOC to ban the Russian athletes, saying a boycott was a chance.
Ukraine boycotted some sporting occasions final yr, preferring to compete towards the Russians.
Speakers at an meeting assembly of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee on Friday raised considerations about Russia utilizing the occasion in Paris for propaganda and famous shut ties between some opponents and the nation’s navy.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated on Thursday that if athletes from each international locations compete, “it should be absolutely clear that they are not representing the Russian or Belarusian states.” The United States will host the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
If the IOC’s proposal takes impact, Paris would be the fourth consecutive Olympics the place Russian athletes have competed with out a nationwide flag or anthem. The Russian groups on the Winter Olympics in 2018 and 2022 and the Summer Olympics in 2021 had been hit by the fallout of a year-long sequence of doping circumstances.
The final time a number of international locations boycotted the Olympics was in 1988, when North Korea and different international locations refused to take part within the Summer Games in South Korea. The North Korean crew didn’t seem within the Tokyo Games in 2021, citing considerations concerning the coronavirus pandemic. The IOC consequently barred it from the next Winter Games in Beijing, saying that groups had an obligation to take part in every Olympics.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
