The participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Olympics is unacceptable as the Russian and Belarusian governments are jointly responsible for ongoing war crimes against Ukraine, therefore the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should make them play under a neutral flag, according to a petition launched by a group of MEPs.
The group of MEPs launched a public petition to tighten the conditions for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics in response to the inaction – and zero response – to their open letter to International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.
“We, concerned citizens and advocates of ethical sportsmanship, urgently appeal to the International Olympic Committee (…) and call on you to take decisive action regarding the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris,” the text of the public petition reads.
“As such, their participation would undermine Olympic values, the basic principles of Olympism as set out in the Olympic Charter, and would damage the achievements of other athletes,” the petition warns.
According to the petition’s authors, the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and the celebration of their sporting achievements cannot be accepted in a situation where the Russian and Belarusian governments are jointly responsible for more than 300 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed and many other war crimes.
Therefore, they demand from the IOC that the participation of individual athletes with passports of the Russian Federation or Belarus should take place under a neutral flag or on condition of signing a declaration expressing unequivocal opposition to the aggression against Ukraine.
The group of 39 MEPs, which also includes the founders of the petition – Czech MEP Michaela Šojdrová (KDU-ČSL, EPP) and Slovak MEP Ivan Štefanec (EPP) – wants to gain as much support for the petition as possible as soon as possible.
The deadline for the petition is the next scheduled session of the IOC, which will take place from 15 to 17 October in Mumbai.
“Although sport is supposed to be neutral, the Olympics have always been a prestigious affair connected to high politics,” Šojdrová commented on the initiative.
“The representatives of undemocratic systems, Putin and Lukashenko, are well aware of this and have long used the success of their athletes as a tool of internal and external political propaganda,” she added.
While the Czech Olympic Committee supports the appeal, the International Olympic Committee has not yet commented on the initiative.
(Barbora Pištorová, Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)
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