Kiev (EFE).- The Ukrainian government has decided that athletes from its federations will not participate in those qualifying events for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reaffirmed this week its predisposition for athletes to Russians participate in the Games.
“At the government meeting, and on the proposal of our colleague (Sports Minister Vadym) Huttsait, the decision was made that we will participate in the qualifying competitions only when there are no Russian athletes,” the minister told the national television news service last night. of Cabinet, Oleg Nemchinov.
In addition to being Minister of Sports, Huttsait won gold in the Barcelona 92 fencing team event and is the president of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee.
Ukrainian federations that fail to meet this criterion, explained the minister, may lose their status as representative national federations of the country.
The Ukrainian government makes this decision after the IOC issued an opinion on March 28 in which it is inclined to allow the participation of Russian athletes and Belarus (a country that Ukraine wants excluded due to its support for the Russian invasion) as athletes ” neutral” and without their national symbols.
Ukraine has rejected this possibility, conveyed for the first time in January by the IOC and supported by the African and Asian Olympic committees, and asks the Olympic governing body to return to the position it took in February last year, when it requested the exclusion of Russian athletes of all competitions.
While the IOC insists that individual athletes should not pay for their government’s actions, Ukraine argues that Russian Olympians receive state salaries and cannot be considered independent.
Kiev also alludes to the affiliation of many Russian Olympians with the Russian army and other security forces, in whose teams they compete, and in recent days has published images of several Russian athletes dressed as military and participating in rallies exalting the war with President Putin.