head International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach advocated the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to Europe this Tuesday. competitions under the neutral flag because, as seen in various sports, it is a formula that “works” and there has been no “safety incident”.
“The participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports in international competitions works. We see this almost every day in cycling and table tennis as well as in sports such as tennis. We see it in ice hockey, handball, football and other leagues. United States,” he said, according to the British Sky News chain.
“There were no safety incidents in any of these competitions”He highlighted Bach in his keynote speech at the headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, of the IOC executive committee, which decided whether to continue the veto applied to Russians and Belarusians after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
This Whether Russian and Belarusian athletes will participate in the next 2024 Paris Games The fact that Ukraine threatened the IOC to boycott the Olympic event if it allowed the presence of these athletes became another subject of this war. Kiev claims they are part of the Army machine.
on the eve of IOC Board of Directors Meeting, The president has already advocated the return of athletes sanctioned for their passports, as exclusion of athletes for political reasons would lead to “the decline of the international sports system.”