On a recent trip to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo declared that Russian and Belarusian athletes “are not welcome” in Paris for the Olympics this summer.
“I want to tell Russian and Belarusian athletes that they are not welcome in Paris and to tell Ukrainian athletes and all the Ukrainian people that we support them very strongly,” Hidalgo said last week.
The statement forced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to clarify that Russian and Belarusian athletes will indeed be hosted as “neutrals” at the Paris 2024 Olympics as planned despite the remarks.
The latest comments from Russia’s deputy prime minister, Dmitry Chernyshenko, indicated last week that the government will not block neutral athletes from competing at the Paris Olympics this summer. Russian president Vladimir Putin had previously questioned the conditions for Olympic participation in December, saying no decision has been made yet about the country’s involvement in Paris this summer.
Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) president Stanislav Pozdnyakov expressed his outrage at Hidalgo’s comment, calling for the IOC to move the event to a different location.
“In theory, if the host city is not ready to host athletes who have received the right to participate in competitions, then the IOC should at least move the Games to another place, but the IOC leadership does not comment on Ms. Hidalgo’s individual political demarche at all,” said Pozdnyakov, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in fencing.
Pozdnyakov went on to say that France has “repeatedly stated the lack of security guarantees for neutral athletes.” He also said the IOC “has done everything possible to eliminate Russia from the international sports arena and reduce to a few potential depersonalized applicants for a trip to Paris.
The ROC lost access to IOC funding in October after it was determined the organization breached the Olympic Charter by absorbing Olympic Councils in four regions illegally annexed from Ukraine.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, only 12 Russian athletes and seven Belarusians have been approved as neutral athletes for the Paris Olympics so far. They will be without their national flags or anthems as punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (that was assisted by Belarus) back in February of 2022.
In order to be eligible, athletes will need to meet a strict set of criteria that includes not “actively” supporting the war in Ukraine and having no contract with the Russian or Belarusian military. Russian and Belarusian teams will also be ineligible.
Notably, neutral athletes will not have to sign a declaration condemning last year’s invasion of Ukraine. Instead, like all other athletes, they must reaffirm their commitment to respect the Olympic charter, including “the peace mission of the Olympic Movement.” In September, two-time Olympic champion swimmer Evgeny Rylov told Russian media that he’d refuse to sign a political declaration in exchange for a return to international competition.
They don’t penalize an actual genocide? Unreal failure of humanity.
Russia should be banned for their frequent and state sponsored doping never mind the war they started.I won,t be missing them.
Okay? The entire western world should never compete in sports then. The Western World has more blood in their hands then Russia… just keep it consistent
I bet Paris has no problems with Isreal. The list goes on and on including America who has killed millions of innocent civilians throughout their aggressions all over the world.
Some great whataboutism here.
The article is specifically about Russian participation in the Olmypics, not on any supposed inconsistencies on which nations should also not be welcomed at Paris.
Furthermore if we follow the fallacy of your whatabout logic, then why stop at just the Western World? Whatabout China, Japan, most of the Middle East. One could argue these countries and more have blood on their hands and shouldn’t complete. Soon you end up with only Switzerland competing!
My take is you should be consistent either way. If Russia is banned, so should Isreal. And so should’ve USA in 2004
It’s all goofy virtue-signaling and posturing at the end of the day
I think this is exactly right. The West has a great way of saying “it’s a problem when they do it”.
And Israel and America now… banned from Paris.
I’m sure Israel will be there tho, lol
Kate Cadwallader Douglass just jumped for joy
Cool now do the IDF!
Seems like the world didn’t care about 40,000 dead brown people but now Israel knocked off 6 white people seems the tide is turning.
Whataboutism was never not annoying
Israel has killed 4 times as many civilians in Palestine since October than Russia has killed Ukrainians in over a year.
Israel is literally doing the same thing but worse than Russia and they are not banned.
Learn what whataboutism means.
you make a good point. I’m at the point that we let the elites from those countries compete under orders that there is no flag and zero representation of their countries.
If the athletes do not support the war, they could put themselves in danger by speaking out on it. I’m glad if this upsets the Russian govt.
Pfftt.
Edward Lucas, former senior editor at the Economist: “Soviet propagandists during the cold war were trained in a tactic that their western interlocutors nicknamed ‘whataboutism’. Any criticism of the Soviet Union (Afghanistan, martial law in Poland, imprisonment of dissidents, censorship) was met with a ‘What about…’ (apartheid South Africa, jailed trade-unionists, the Contras in Nicaragua, and so forth).”
The subject here is Russian and Ukraine.
You literally said “but” Israel…
Both situations are way more complicated than your simplistic rhetoric is making them out to be. This is quite the false equivalency, and I’m not going to apologize for calling out that you’re trying to hijack the discussion with your own agenda about an unrelated topic.
Whataboutism is specifically designed to deflect responsibility for an act by claiming equivalence to someone else. I never did that.
I think Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is heinous and I do not excuse it and I think the Russian government is fully responsible for all the death they have caused. However, suggesting that consequences for similar acts should be similar is not whataboutism. I am not using Israel to justify Russia. I am saying Israel should be treated like Russia is.
Again, learn what whataboutism means.
While we are on the topic though, you must be furious with Israel because every single announcement they make includes some form of “someone else did something bad so any criticism of us is… Read more »
Perhaps supporting a terrorist group and starting a war against Israel, instead of building a better life with the billions in donations they’ve received wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Good riddance to Russia also.
Oh yes, the classic “they started it”. My five year old niece knows that that isn’t a valid excuse to harm someone.
Even if we pretend Hamas just attacked Israel unprovoked on October 7th, which every person with a functioning brain knows is false, that still wouldn’t justify Israel’s actions. Nothing possibly could.
Honestly they could have got away with it if they just kept killing brown people. No one would have stopped them. But killing a white American was their mistake. It’s honestly sad that that’s what it took for a lot of people to wake up.
Whataboutism and outliers are the same caliber of argument. It’s never a surprise who is summoning them.
Buddy gets all his info from tiktok headlines
Sorry, I should probably check “muslimsdonothavesoulsnews.com” run by the Israeli government to get my news like you do
Cool, a fake strawman totally isn’t proving his point.
Yeah actually, believe it or not the conflict didn’t start out of nowhere in 2023 and it’s not actually all that one sided, for example HAMAS fairly won the last election in Gaza and doesn’t exactly seem unpopular, the head of the PLO wrote a doctoral thesis on holocaust denial, and it sure would be a shame if we were overlooking any history involving the Olympics, like a terrorist attack that massacred Israeli athletes or something…
“Hamas fairly won the last election”. The election in 2006, 18 years ago? Over a third of deaths are children who would not have been born when that election happened. Of the adults killed, the majority would not have been old enough to vote in that election.
“If you didn’t want to die you shouldn’t have let a certain political party be elected before you were born” is exactly the logic I would expect from someone like you.
And I don’t know what the straw man you’re talking about is. Nothing in my comment could be considered a straw man. I don’t think you know what the term means.
Honestly really disappointed in how ignorant most of the SwimSwam commenters are.
Preach
IOF you mean. 76 years of illegal apartheid occupation, 16 years of food/electricity/medicine blockade on Gaza, and now committing genocide. Pure evil.
Here come the ‘down’ votes.
I was very much AGAINST President Jimmy Carter telling USA athletes they could NOT go to the 1980 Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 100’s of American men and women lost their 1 shot at a Games! Then, 4 years later, USSR returned the favor at the LA 1984 Olympics. Get the politicians and their warmongering policies OUT of international swimming and athletics in general. Paris 2024 should be open to all qualified athletes. Madame Hidalo, Je vous prie sincerement d’etre en desaccord avec vous!
I heartily disagree with the Mayor of Paris!
You’re wrong. If Russian athletes are allowed to compete, it is tacit approval of the Russian invasion by the IOC and normalizes such acts of war as OK.
From the IOC “The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world”
You’re omitting a crucial detail.
August 1st, 2008, while the games are going on in Beijing, Russia invades Georgia
February 27th, 2014, 4 days after the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian invades Crimea.
February 24th, 2022, again 4 days after the winter Olympics in Beijing Russian invades Ukraine
This is not just any nation at war, this is a repeated history of calculated actions timed with the Olympic games that are a direct middle finger to the spirit of the games.
And also, sorry sports have always been political. Would you have told Tommie Smith and John Carlos… Read more »
By allowing Russian athletes to compete and then parade with Putin with Z badges on their chest and olympic medals arounf their neck….like Rylov did.