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02/03/23 02:00:00
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02/03 13:58 CST Ukraine pushes to exclude Russia from 2024 Paris Olympics
Ukraine pushes to exclude Russia from 2024 Paris Olympics
By HANNA ARHIROVA
Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) --- With next year's Paris Olympics on the horizon and
Russia's invasion looking more like a prolonged conflict, Ukraine's sports
minister on Friday renewed a threat to boycott the games if Russia and Belarus
are allowed to compete and said Kyiv would lobby other nations to join.
Such a move could lead to the biggest rift in the Olympic movement since the
Cold War era.
No nation has declared it will boycott the 2024 Summer Games. But Ukraine won
support from Poland, the Baltic nations and Denmark, who pushed back against an
International Olympic Committee plan to allow delegations from Russia and ally
Belarus to compete in Paris as "neutral athletes," without flags or anthems.
"We cannot compromise on the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes,"
said Ukrainian Sports Minister Vadym Huttsait, who also heads its national
Olympic committee, citing attacks on his country, the deaths of its athletes
and the destruction of its sports facilities.
A meeting of his committee did not commit to a boycott but approved plans to
try to persuade global sports officials in the next two months --- including
discussion of a possible boycott.
Huttsait added: "As a last option, but I note that this is my personal opinion,
if we do not succeed, then we will have to boycott the Olympic Games."
Paris will be the final Olympics under outgoing IOC head Thomas Bach, who is
looking to his legacy after a tenure marked by disputes over Russia's status
--- first over widespread doping scandals and now over the war in Ukraine.
Bach's views were shaped when he was an Olympic gold medalist in fencing and
his country, West Germany, took part in the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980
Olympics in Moscow over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He has condemned
that decision ever since.
Russia has cautiously welcomed the IOC's decision to give it a path to the
Olympics but demands it drop a condition that would leave out those athletes
deemed to be "actively supporting the war in Ukraine."
Russian Olympic Committee head Stanislav Pozdnyakov, who was a teammate of
Ukraine's Huttsait at the 1992 Olympics, called that aspect discriminatory. The
IOC, which previously recommended excluding Russia and Belarus from world
sports on safety grounds, now argues it cannot discriminate against them purely
based on citizenship.
The leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania urged the IOC to ban Russia and
said a boycott was a possibility.
"I think that our efforts should be on convincing our other friends and allies
that the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes is just wrong,"
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said. "So boycotting is the next step. I
think people will understand why this is necessary."
The IOC said in a statement that "this threat of a boycott only leads to
further escalation of the situation, not only in sport, but also in the wider
context. It is regretful that politicians are misusing athletes and sport as
tools to achieve their political objectives."
It added bluntly: "Why punish athletes from your country for the Russian
government starting the war?"
Poland's sports minister Kamil Bortniczuk said as many as 40 countries could
jointly condemn Russian and Belarusian participation at Paris in a statement
next week but that it could stop short of a boycott threat. He told state news
agency PAP that the IOC was being "naive" and should reflect on its position.
Denmark wants a ban on Russian athletes "from all international sports as long
as their attacks on Ukraine continue," said Danish Culture Minister Jakob
Engel-Schmidt.
"We must not waver in relation to Russia. The government's line is clear.
Russia must be banned," he said. "This also applies to Russian athletes who
participate under a neutral flag. It is completely incomprehensible that there
are apparently doubts about the line in the IOC."
Asked by The Associated Press about the boycott threats and the IOC plan, Paris
2024 organizing committee head Tony Estanguet would not comment "about
political decisions."
"My job is to make sure that all athletes who want to participate will be
offered the best conditions in terms of security, to offer them the chance to
live their dream," he said in Marseille.
Ukraine boycotted some sporting events last year rather than compete against
Russians.
Huttsait said a boycott would be very tough, saying it was "very important for
us that our flag is at the Olympic Games; it is very important for us that our
athletes are on the podium. So that we show that our Ukraine was, is, and will
be."
Marta Fedina, 21, an Olympic bronze medalist in artistic swimming, said in Kyiv
she was "ready for a boycott."
"How will I explain to our defenders if I am even present on the same sports
ground with these people," she said, referring to Russian athletes. She noted
her swimming pool in Kharkiv, where she was living when Moscow invaded, was
ruined by the war.
Speakers at the Ukrainian Olympic Committee's assembly meeting raised concerns
about Moscow using Paris for propaganda and noted the close ties between some
athletes and the Russian military.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday if athletes from
the two countries compete, "it should be absolutely clear that they are not
representing the Russian or Belarusian states." Los Angeles will host the 2028
Olympics.
If the IOC's proposal takes effect, Paris would be the fourth straight Olympics
where Russian athletes have competed without the national flag or anthem. The
Russian teams at the Winter Olympics in 2018 and 2022 and the Summer Olympics
in 2021 were all caught up in the fallout from a series of doping cases.
The last time multiple countries boycotted an Olympics was in 1988, when North
Korea and others refused to attend the Summer Games in South Korea. The North
Korean team was a no-show at the Tokyo Games in 2021, citing concerns about the
coronavirus pandemic. The IOC barred it from the following Winter Games in
Beijing as a result, saying teams had a duty to attend every Olympics.
Although the IOC set the tone of the debate by publishing advice on finding a
way to help Russia and Belarus compete, decisions must be made for the
governing bodies of individual sports that organize events on the 32-sport
Paris program.
Those organizations, many based in the IOC's home of Lausanne, Switzerland, run
their own qualifying and Olympic competitions and decide on eligibility
criteria for athletes and teams.
The International Cycling Union signed on to the IOC's plan ahead of its
Olympic qualifying events to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete
as "neutrals."
Track and field's World Athletics and soccer's FIFA were among most sports that
excluded Russian athletes and teams within days of the start of the war. Tennis
and cycling let many Russians and Belarusians continue competing as neutrals.
Other governing bodies are more closely aligned with the IOC or traditionally
have strong commercial and political ties to Russia.
One key meeting could be March 3 in Lausanne of the umbrella group of Summer
Games sports, known as ASOIF. It is chaired by Francesco Ricci Bitti, a former
IOC member when he led the International Tennis Federation, and includes World
Athletics president Sebastian Coe.
ASOIF declined comment Friday, though noted this week "the importance of
respecting the specificity of each federation and their particular
qualification process" for Paris.
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Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Bishr El-Touni in Marseille, France, Jan M. Olsen in
Copenhagen, Denmark, and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed.
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and
https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at
https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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