The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, announced this Wednesday that he will send 203 invitations to national committees to participate in the Paris Games, which excludes, for now, Russia and Belarus, whose participation is on hold due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Exactly one year after the start of the Games in the French capital, Bach extended in Paris, in a symbolic ceremony, the first ten invitations and assured that it will do so, in the coming days, with another 203 committees from around the world.
The IOC president, whose body is temporizing on the exclusion of Russia and Belarus from the Games, did not go into further detail in his speech on the matter.
Subsequently, Bach qualified that the exclusion of these two committees is “logical” because the IOC “has given recommendations to international federations to accept the participation of national athletes, not teams” and under a neutral flag.
“We have not made a decision on the participation of those neutral and individual athletes. in the Olympic Games”, pointed out the president of the IOC.
Ukraine requests its exclusion, but the latest IOC movements suggest that it will open the door to the participation of athletes from those two countries to compete under a neutral flag and as long as they have no ties to the army and other defense agencies.
Bach refused to detail a timetable. on the inclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Games.
“We have to monitor that the strict conditions are accepted and that they don’t wait for a fixed day to behave well and then do something else. They have to respect the letter and the spirit, understand why we have imposed these strict conditions. When we have confidence, we will make the decision, ”he assured.
In this sense, the French Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, assured that they are following the situation closely and recalled that her country, together with 34 other European nations, requested that Russian athletes be allowed to compete individually and provided they meet certain conditions.
“This does not reduce our support for the Ukraine, and the strictest condemnation of this war of aggression”indicated the minister, who pointed out that Russian and Belarusian athletes “should not be discriminated against because of their passports.”
Of course – he added – as long as “they have not supported the war, have no ties to the armyrespect the anti-doping rules and participate individually, with neutrality, without anthem or flag”.
Russia accuses the IOC of promoting the monopoly of the chosen nations
The Russian government accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday of having become in a structure in which “gerontocracy” and the monopoly of “chosen nations” flourishafter Russia was not invited to participate in the Paris Olympics.
“The IOC has gone from being an organization that defended the interests of athletes to a structure in which gerontocracy and the monopoly of chosen sanctions flourish.”Dmitri Chernishenko, Russia’s deputy prime minister, told the TASS news agency.
Chernishenko admitted that the statement by IOC President Thomas Bach was expected, so it had not been a novelty for Russia.
“Our country He has enormous experience, motivation and perspectives to organize on his own formats of the magnitude of the Olympic Games and even greater”he assured.
The IOC maintains the sanction to Guatemala, third excluded for now from the Paris Games
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, assured this Wednesday that Guatemala is not invited “for now” to the Paris Games, before the suspension of that country due to political interference with the national committee.
Guatemala is, along with Russia and Belarus, because of the war in Ukraine, the only national committee that did not receive this invitationlaunched symbolically at a ceremony in Paris with exactly one year to go before the start of the 2024 Games.
Bach was confident that, between now and the opening ceremony, things will change in the country Central American and its athletes can participate under the Guatemalan flag and do not have to do so under the Olympic flag.
“There are presidential elections, we hope that after the actions linked to the electoral campaign things will calm down and Guatemalan athletes will be able to participate with their flag and anthem. If it is not resolved, we will invite Guatemalan athletes to participate under the Olympic flag,” said the IOC president.
The origin of the sanction, imposed in October 2022, is the partial suspension of the statutes of the Guatemalan Olympic Committee (COG) by the Constitutional Court of the Central American countryafter a lawsuit filed by a candidate for the presidency of the body.
As long as the COG statutes, which were suspended by the Court, are not restored, the athletes of the Central American country will not be able to compete with their flag or their anthem in international tournaments, something that already happened in the recent Central American and Caribbean Games, where they did so as neutrals.
The last review of the situation in Guatemala took place on June 21, when the Executive of the organization decided to maintain the suspension, for the third time, after appreciating that there had been no “progress” in his situation.