With war raging in Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States and Nordic countries had called on international sports bodies to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in the Olympics.
Ukraine has threatened to boycott the games if Russian and Belarusian athletes compete. However, the International Olympic Committee has opened the door for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals.
Meanwhile Polish Sports Minister Kamil Bortniczuk on Friday said he expected around 40 countries to oppose the participation of Russians and Belarusians in the Paris Olympics at Friday's conference. He added that the ministers believed that at this stage it was pointless to threaten a boycott of the Olympics.
“But we can’t rule out this scenario,” he noted.
Bortniczuk on Friday said that irrespective of “all the Olympic Committee’s attempts to sneak Russian athletes into the Paris Olympics through the back door” they will surely be banned from the forthcoming European Games set to start in June in the southern Polish city of Krakow.
Bortniczuk also said during Friday’s meeting he suggested creating a team of refugees which would allow some Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete.
He stated: “I believe this may be a compromise for the International Olympic Committee to avoid being accused of discrimination based on nationality and a way to create not a neutral team but a team of refugees, which could include people of Russian and Belarusian nationality who are dissidents for the respective regimes of Putin’s and Lukashenko’s.”
The United States, however, backs allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete as neutrals at the forthcoming Olympics in France while opposing the display of their national flags or emblems.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of host city Paris, has said Russian athletes should not take part. However, Paris 2024 organisers have said they will abide by the IOC's decision on the issue.
Friday is day 352 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(mo/pm)
Source: IAR, Reuters