The mayor of Paris spoke out against Russian athletes at the 2024 Olympics, “while the war is going on”

The mayor of Paris spoke out against Russian athletes at the 2024 Olympics, “while the war is going on”

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has changed her position regarding Russian participants in the 2024 Olympic Games, saying that they should be banned “while the war continues” in Ukraine. AFP informs about it, writes

Last month, Hidalgo stated that, in her opinion, the Russians can participate “under a neutral flag” in order to “not leave the athletes the opportunity to compete.”

On Tuesday, she told French media that her previous position was “indecent” because a neutral flag “doesn’t really exist,” although she said there should be a place for “Russian dissidents who want to march under the refugee flag.”

“I do not support this option, I consider it absolutely indecent,” said Hidalgo. “We will not flaunt a country that attacks another and pretend that it does not exist.”

Her office noted that this is a “clarification” of her position.

According to her, these will be athletes who “do not support Vladimir Putin in his ego aggression.”

The Olympic refugee team took part in the Games in Rio de Janeiro for the first time in 2016, where it included 10 athletes from Syria, Ethiopia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022, Russians and Belarusians have been banned from participating in most world sports events.

The International Olympic Committee announced last month that it is studying a way to allow athletes from Belarus and Russia to participate in the Olympic Games in Paris.

In response, Ukraine stated that it would consider the issue of boycotting the Games.

The United States said that Russian and Belarusian athletes should compete in Paris under a neutral flag, but many countries, especially in Eastern Europe, opposed this idea.

Polish Sports Minister Kamil Bortnychuk said last week that up to 40 countries may refuse to participate in the Paris Games if Russia and its ally Belarus are admitted to the competition.

Estonia announced that it would boycott, while the Czech Olympic Committee announced on Monday that it opposes Russia’s participation, but will not boycott.

The IOC, not the organizers and the French authorities, will ultimately decide who will participate in the Olympic Games.

The Russians performed under a neutral flag after the doping scandal at the Winter Games in Sochi in 2014.

After the ban of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Russians represented their national Olympic committee, and not Russia itself, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 and the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022.

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