KYIV – Ukraine must consider whether taking part in the 2024 Paris Olympics is in the nation’s interests but participation is impossible unless the IOC alters its “non-constructive position”, its sports minister said on Dec 9.
Mr Matviy Bidnyi, Ukraine's acting minister of Youth and Sports, was speaking on national television a day after the International Olympic Committee said Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete in Paris as neutrals without flags, emblems or anthems.
“The decision to participate should be made based on what it will bring to the country, what the reaction will be and how much it will bring us closer to victory,” he said, referring to Ukraine’s 21-month-old war with Russia.
“We should not make rash decisions. It will be a balanced decision and we have to communicate it to the public. We will weigh the pros and cons very carefully.”
Russians and Belarusians had initially been banned from competing internationally following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, for which Belarus has been used as a staging ground.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Dec 8 condemned the IOC decision as “shameful” while Russia’s Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin called the conditions for Russian athletes’ participation at the Olympics “discriminatory”.
Mr Bidnyi said Ukraine could work towards participating if leaders came to the conclusion that it would “promote our position to the world”.
“If we continue to see the absolutely non-constructive position of the IOC, to continue to tolerate the participation of the henchmen of the bloody (Russian) regime, this will make our participation impossible.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has for months tried to rally world support for all Russian and Belarusian athletes to be barred from the Games.
However, he did not say whether Ukrainians will take part if athletes from the two nations are to compete as neutrals.
Ukraine swimmer Mykhailo Romanchuk, however, has taken a firm stance on that, calling it a “big shame for the world of sport”.
“The Russians attacked Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian civilians, Ukrainian athletes, Ukrainian sport facilities, and now they are allowed to compete. It is not normal,” said the double Olympic medallist from Tokyo 2020.
“So more than 400 athletes dead during this war. And now we take them to the Olympics? It’s not right.
“If you’re not respecting the rules, if you’re not respecting peace in the world, why are you allowed to compete? So it’s a big, big shame for the world of sport.”
Final decisions on inclusion would fall on international federations.
The World Aquatics swimming body announced in September that Russians would be reinstated from 2024, unlike World Athletics, whose president Sebastian Coe said on Dec 8 that “there will be no neutral athletes” in track and field in Paris.
According to the IOC, 11 athletes – eight Russians and three Belarusians – have so far qualified by meeting the neutrality criteria. REUTERS, AFP
