 "Moscow says calls to ban Russian athletes from Olympics 'unacceptable'")
Moscow: A day after sports officials from 36 countries remarked that Russian athletes have no place at next year’s Paris Olympics, the Russian sports minister said Saturday that call to ban Russian athletes from the Olympics is “unacceptable”.
“The attempt to dictate the conditions of athletes’ participation in international competitions is absolutely unacceptable,” sports minister Oleg Matytsin was cited as saying by Russian state-run news agencies.
“We see a blatant desire to destroy the unity of international sport and the international Olympic movement.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his calls on Friday, saying that “the mere presence of representatives of the terrorist state is a manifestation of violence and lawlessness.”
Zelenskyy told a summit of sports officials from 36 countries Friday that Russian athletes have no place at next year’s Paris Olympics while their country’s invasion of Ukraine continues.
“It would be better to organise sport within countries and do everything necessary to make sport an ambassador of peace and build bridges between nations,” Matytsin answered Saturday.
The International Olympic Committee argues it would be discriminatory to exclude Russia and ally Belarus from sports ahead of the 2024 Paris Games. With qualifying in many sports already underway, the IOC wants athletes from those countries to compete in a neutral capacity without national symbols.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe International Olympic Committee’s President Thomas Bach has described Ukraine’s calls for a boycott of the Games as contrary to the “principles we stand for”. Ukraine, however, reacted furiously to the International Olympic Committee’s announcement last month that it was exploring a “pathway” to allow Russian and Belarusian competitors to take part in the Paris Games, under a neutral flag.
Nordic and some eastern European countries have indicated they would join a boycott.
The IOC, which last year backed excluding Russians and Belarusians from sporting events on safety grounds, also faces challenges from within its own movement.
With inputs from agencies.
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