Berlin.
In 2024 the Olympic Games will take place in Paris. Now German politicians are pushing for the exclusion of Russian athletes.
Barely a year after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, leading German sports politicians spoke out against Russian athletes taking part in the Summer Olympics 2024 in Paris. “As long as Russia is at war on European soil, it sends the wrong signal to think about the participation of athletes from Russia,” said the chairman of the Bundestag sports committee, Frank Ullrich (SPD), to our editors.
The former biathlon Olympic champion and national coach added: “Everyone has the right not to be disadvantaged because of their social background, but everyone also has the right to life and freedom. through the Russian war of aggression the lives and rights of countless people are being disregarded and wiped out.”
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Olympia 2024: Exclusion of Russian athletes demanded
The deputy committee chairman Philip Krämer (Greens) made a similar statement, who also advocated a ban on Belarusian athletes. Krämer told our editors: “As long as Russia is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine and Belarus is acting as a close ally of Russia in the Ukraine war, in my opinion, athletes from these nations should not be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games.”
Ullrich and Krämer thus sided with various European governments, athletes and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, in whose city the next summer games will take place in July and August 2024. On Tuesday, Hidalgo spoke out strictly against the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the competitions as long as the war in Ukraine rages.
The mayor of the French capital also rejects participation under a neutral flag: under the current circumstances, it is “unthinkable” that it is pretended that nothing has happened “and a delegation follows Paris comes as the bombs continue to rain down on Ukraine”.
Russia and Belarus suspended from numerous sporting events
Russia and Belarus are currently numerous international sports competitions suspended. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under its German President Thomas Bach aims to allow athletes from both countries to participate under neutral flags, provided they clearly commit to the Olympic Charter and do not actively support the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine threatens an Olympic boycott if the IOC sticks to its line. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD), who also Sports is responsible, had recently said that the advance of the IOC was “the completely wrong way”.
Ukraine war – background and explanations for the conflict
The SPD MP Ullrich now said: “My heart beats for sport and also for the athletes, but I support the decision of the IOC, Russian athletes to reintegrate into the sports world under strict conditions, for premature.”
Green representative Krämer said with a view to Russia and Belarus: “The challenge is to clearly regulate when nations from international competitions can be excluded.” The fact that a state is involved in a war of aggression must be clearly clarified under international law and can therefore also serve as a very good criterion for exclusion. “But that must then be implemented consistently and in all states. The IOC has a responsibility to ensure clarity. Anything else would just be arbitrary.”
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