IOC warns Ukraine BEFORE Paris 2024 boycott, insisting its athletes would suffer most

Ukrainian athletes would be the only ones to suffer if the country responded to a Paris 2024 boycott threat over Russian athletes’ participation, the International Olympic Committee has warned.

The IOC is working with international sports federations and national Olympic committees to develop a way to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutral participants in Paris under strict conditions amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian athletes should have “no place” at the Games, and the country’s Sports Minister Vadim Guttsait said Ukraine would consider a boycott if the IOC goes ahead.

The IOC has warned that Ukrainian athletes would be the only ones to suffer if the country responded to a Paris 2024 boycott threat

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian athletes should have “no place” at the games

The IOC was skeptical of this approach, saying in a question-and-answer document released on Thursday: “It is extremely unfortunate to escalate this discussion at this early stage with a threat of boycott.

“The participation of individual, neutral athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has not yet been discussed.

“The threat of a boycott of the Olympic Games, which the NOC of Ukraine is currently considering, violates the very foundations of the Olympic movement and the principles it stands for.

“A boycott is a breach of the Olympic Charter, which obliges all NOCs to ‘participate in the games of the Olympiad by sending athletes’. As history has shown, previous boycotts did not achieve their political goal and only served to punish the athletes of the boycotting NOCs.’

The IOC Executive Board recommended in February last year, in the days after the invasion began, that international sports federations ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from their events.

However, IOC President Thomas Bach said it was only intended as a “protective measure” for these athletes and now insists they should not be discriminated against because of their passport.

IOC President Thomas Bach met Zelenskyy last week, where the Ukrainian president clarified that there is no place for Russian athletes at the 2024 Olympics

The British government, a key ally of Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, has criticized the IOC’s stance.

Culture Minister Michelle Donelan said last week: “I want to make it clear that this position of the IOC is worlds away from the reality of the war that the Ukrainian people are feeling – and IOC President Bach’s own words less than a year ago, when he was strongly condemning Russia for breaking the Olympic truce and calling on it to “give peace a chance”.

“We will strongly condemn any action that allows President Putin to legitimize his illegal war in Ukraine – a position previously shared by the IOC.

“We and many other countries have consistently spoken out in no uncertain terms on this issue and we will now urgently work in like-minded countries to ensure solidarity on this issue continues.”