The International Olympic Committee (IOC) believes that Ukrainian athletes will suffer the most if their leaders decide to boycott the Olympic qualification events in which they participate Russian athletes, as they have announced. “If implemented, such a decision would only harm the community of Ukrainian sportsmen and in any would have repercussions on the war that the world wants to stop and that the IOC has so vehemently condemned,” the agency said in a statement on Saturday.
“The IOC has always maintained that it is not for governments to decide which athletes can participate in which international competitions”, he added. The agency recalled that the Ukrainian Tennis Federation He has shown himself in favor of keeping his athletes in competition and also reiterated his habitual reference to the other 70 conflicts or wars that exist in the world without their athletes being banned from competitions.
The IOC Executive agreed last Tuesday to recommend to the federations the admission in its Russian and Belarusian competitions -excluded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022-, but only from individuals, not from teams, under a neutral flag, if they have never demonstrated in favor of the war and if they do not belong to the army or security agencies. The Ukrainian government reacted immediately by announcing that it would boycott competitions involving Russians.
The IOC also alluded today to the meeting held on Friday in Madrid by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), which brings together the 206 in the world, which stated that “any governmental appeal The boycott represents a direct interference in the autonomy of sport and constitutes a clear politicization of sport”. “This will only contribute to isolating National Olympic Committees (NOCs) from the world sports community and will directly affect the dreams and aspirations of athletes,” said ANOC.
