Ukrainian President says allowing Russia at Paris Olympics would tell the 'world that terror is acceptable'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has condemned the idea of Russian athletes competing at the 2024 Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has indicated that they were looking into pathways to allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral banner.
They said that ‘not athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport’.
A day after the two nations were invited to compete at the Asian Games, a competition that goes toward Olympics qualifications, according to ESPN.
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However, Zelenskyy has been outspoken in his opposition to athletes competing in the games altogether.
The Ukrainian President has told French president Emmanuel Macron that Russia should have ‘no place’ there.
In his recent video address, he slammed the IOC for their attempts to ‘bring Russian athletes back into the Olympic Games’ feeling as though it tells ‘the whole world that terror is somehow acceptable’.
He referred to the ‘great Olympic mistake’ of the 1936 games which were held in Berlin despite the Nazis being in power.
He said: "The Olympic movement and terrorist states definitely should not cross paths.”
He added that Russia must not be allowed to ‘use (the games) or any other sport event as propaganda for its aggression or its state chauvinism’.
The UK government has also condemned the plan as a ‘world away front he reality of war’.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak called the IOC a ‘promoter of war’, according to AFP, via Yahoo! News.
He said “(The) IOC is a promoter of war, murder and destruction. The IOC watches with pleasure Russia destroying Ukraine and then offers Russia a platform to promote genocide and encourages their further killings.
"Obviously Russian money that buys Olympic hypocrisy doesn't have a smell of Ukrainian blood. Right, Mr. Bach?"
Thomas Bach is the President of the IOC.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has said she’s in favour of Russians taking part in the games in Paris as neutrals, however, the city has no say over which nations compete.
A spokesperson for the IOC told SPORTbible: “The IOC rejects in the strongest possible terms this and other defamatory statements. They cannot serve as a basis for any constructive discussion. Therefore, the IOC will not further comment on them.”
Jayden Collins