Allowing Russian athletes any opportunity to compete in the 2024 Summer Games in Paris would be “totally indecent” because of that nation’s war against Ukraine, the French capitol’s mayor has declared.
“As long as there is this war, this aggression, Russia on Ukraine, it is not possible to march as if nothing had happened, to have a delegation come to Paris, while the bombs continue to rain down on Ukraine,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told franceinfo radio Tuesday.
Hidalgo had previously agreed with a proposal pitched last month by the International Olympic Committee to permit athletes from Russia and its ally in the war, Belarus, to participate as neutral competitors as long as they hadn’t actively backed the invasion.
That would mean no flags, anthems, colors or anything else announcing their home countries. Russia has competed in past Olympics under less-stringent restrictions due to athlete doping violations.
The proposal, which the IOC has since stressed is only under consideration, has been rejected by both Ukrainian and Russian officials as well as a growing list of countries that want to keep the current ban on athletes from the countries responsible for the war.
Ukrainian sports officials are threatening to boycott the Paris Olympics if Russians and Belarusians are going to be there, while Russia is demanding its athletes be treated no differently than those from any other nation.
The IOC proposal, a reversal of the organization’s call at the start of the war for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be barred from international competition, is expected to be discussed in early March by the world’s summer sports federations.
After Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in London on Wednesday with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the British government repeated its position that Russia and Belarus shouldn’t be able to compete in the Olympics, the BBC reported.
“We, and indeed many other countries, have been unequivocal on this throughout and we want to ensure that we continue to speak with one voice on this and make that clear to the IOC,” the prime minister’s official spokesman said, according to the BBC.
The French government is not ruling out a potential “sanction” against Russia at the Paris Olympics, spokesman Olivier Veran said Wednesday at a news conference, The Associated Press reported.
“So far, no official decision has been made with the IOC” about the Paris Olympics, Veran said. “But you know that France has been consistently in favor of fully and completely applying any sanction.”
Sports organizations from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and other Nordic nations issued a joint statement Tuesday opposing the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competition.
“The situation with the war in Ukraine has not changed. Therefore, we stand firm in our position, not to open for Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international sports participation. Now is not the right time to consider their return,” the statement said.
Similar decrees have come from other countries, including Poland, Estonia and Latvia.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has not publicly commented, although a letter from Chairman Gene Sykes obtained by the Deseret News said there’s “skepticism” that “safe and fair play” can be ensured if Russians and Belarusians are able to compete.
The Paris mayor suggested in the radio interview that neutrality for Russian and Belarusian athletes “doesn’t really exist” so she can no longer support them competing under a neutral banner, as refugees and dissidents have done in the past.
“I would find that totally indecent,” Hidalgo said, adding, “In any case, we’re not going to scroll through a country that is in the process of attacking another and pretending it didn’t exist.”
The mayor, the first woman to hold the office, said she is “not in favor of there being a Russian delegation at the Paris Olympics, all the more obviously if the war is still taking place, which I don’t wish.”
The IOC responded to Hidalgo.
“There are no plans for a Russian or Belarusian delegation or the flags of these countries at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” the Switzerland-based organization said in a statement issued Wednesday, according to the AP.
“The only option that could be considered are individual, neutral athletes like we have seen last year at the French Open in tennis and recently again at the Australian Open in tennis and in other professional sports,” the statement said.