LAUSANNE:
The IOC said on Tuesday that the nations had asked for “clarification” on how Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete as neutral athletes in the Paris 2024 Olympics “expressed human rights concerns” were not identified.
In a letter seen on Monday by AFP, more than 30 countries expressed concern about the neutrality of players, especially because of the “strong ties and ties between Russian players” and the Russian military”.
“We have strong concerns about the ability of Russian and Belarusian Olympic athletes to compete as ‘neutrals’ … if they are directly funded and supported by their states,” read the letter.
It said “these strong concerns must be addressed by the IOC”.
However, the IOC in their response on Tuesday said that “the clear human rights concerns expressed by two special statements of the United Nations Human Rights Council were not addressed in the information”.
The IOC Board of Directors consulted with two special representatives at the end of January.
After that, they gave a statement about the need to respect the rights of all athletes to do without and a gender identity, according to the Olympic Guidelines.
Russia and its ally Belarus, which allowed its territory to be used as a staging post when Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last February, have been excluded from most of the Olympic Games since the start of the value.
Of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was exploring a “way” to allow Russian and Belarusian competitors to participate in the Paris Games, under a neutral flag – sparking anger from Ukraine.
The letter to the IOC followed a meeting earlier this month in London attended by France, Britain, the United States and Canada, among others.
The IOC said in their response that the definition of what constitutes an athlete’s bias was first introduced last December.
“In December of last year, the leaders of all Olympic partners discussed these human rights concerns and established the broad principles of neutrality,” the IOC said.
The principles require neutral players who “do not represent their state or any other organization in their country”, as is the case in many individual sports such as tennis, and they ” fully respect the Olympic Charter”.
“Only those who have not opposed the peace mission of the IOC by actively supporting the war in Ukraine can compete,” the IOC said, adding that athletes also need to ” fully comply” with the law of the world anti-doping code.
The IOC says the talks are a work in progress.
“Specific negotiations are ongoing with these stakeholders to further clarify these guidelines.”
“In this case, the practical questions presented in the statement will be carefully considered.”
The IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, have come under heavy criticism for their position, although the German said last week that he shared the “sorrow and suffering of the people” of the Ukrainian athletes.
However, he added that it is not up to each nation to decide who participates in international sports competitions.
The mayor of Kyiv and former world heavyweight champion, Vitali Klitschko, responded, telling AFP that people are “for or against war”.
“I am very happy to invite Thomas Bach to Kyiv, to Ukraine so that he can see for himself the destroyed villages, the cities, to see how many people have died.
“He doesn’t understand … he’s playing games with Russia.”
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