Olympics
Boycott looms at next year’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Ukraine will consider boycotting next year’s Olympic Games in Paris if athletes from Russia and Belarus are allowed to compete, the country’s Sports Minister Vadym Guttsait has warned.
It followed the confirmation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday that they were continuing to “explore a pathway” for Russian and Belarusian athletes’ participation at Paris 2024 under a neutral banner.
Guttsait, also President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOCU), has vowed they will do everything they can to ensure Russia and Belarus are not represented in any form in the French capital.
“For the whole Ukrainian sports community, this is a question of principle!” Guttsait wrote on his Facebook page.
“In this, we are supported by both the President of our state, and all society.
“Part of the International Federations are outraged by the IOC’s efforts to promote the return of Russians and Belarusians.
“We have addressed and will address all international organizations that can influence the situation and whose opinions the IOC members can listen to.”
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had urged his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to help ensure they are not represented at next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
It followed insidethegames’ exclusive revelation that Guttsait had told IOC President Thomas Bach during a conference call involving several National Olympic Committees that athletes from Russia were serving in the country’s armed forces and they were “killing our people”.
“Our position is unchanged: as long as there is a war in Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian athletes should not be in international competitions!!!” Guttsait wrote on Facebook.
“Certainly, our national sporting federations need to strengthen communication with international federations to keep the ban in effect.
“Work is currently underway on further possible steps and first steps to continue sanctions and prevent Russians and Belarusians from international competitions.
“If we are not heard, I do not rule out the possibility that we will boycott and refuse participation in the Olympics.”
There was support for the IOC position from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
“I think this is a moment for athletes and that athletes should not be deprived of their competition,” she told television channel France 2.
“But I think and I plead, like a large part of the sports movement, so that there is no delegation under the Russian banner.”
The Olympic Council of Asia reaffirmed their invitation to athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete in qualifying competitions, while the European Olympic Committees said in a statement that it “does not feel athletes should be prevented from competing solely on the basis of which passport they hold.”
But the United Kingdom Government, which has been Ukraine’s biggest supporter since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last February with Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak both having visited Kyiv, criticised the IOC position.
“We condemn any action that allows President Putin to legitimise his illegal war in Ukraine,” the UK’s Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan said.
“This position from the IOC is a world away from the reality of war being felt by the Ukrainian people – and IOC President [Thomas] Bach’s own words less than a year ago where he strongly condemned Russia for breaking the Olympic Truce and urged it to ‘give peace a chance’.
“We, and many other countries, have been unequivocal on this throughout, and we will now work urgently across like-minded countries to ensure that solidarity continues on this issue.”
Insidethegames
Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday awarded a top state honour to an Olympic skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Games for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”
“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.
Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”
Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”
“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.
Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
-Reuters
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Ukraine’s skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Thursday over the use of a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia, the International Olympic Committee said.
He was informed of his disqualification after a meeting with IOC President Kirsty Coventry early in the morning at the sliding venue.
His team said they would appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Coventry told reporters she had wanted to meet the athlete face to face in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse.
“I was not meant to be here but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face,” Coventry told reporters.
“No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory.
“The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly we’ve not been able to find that solution” she added, choking up.
“I really wanted to see him race, It’s been an emotional morning.”
The IOC offered him the opportunity to display his “helmet of remembrance” depicting 24 images of dead compatriots before the start and after the end of Thursday’s race at the Games, while also allowing him to wear a black armband while competing.
“I am disqualified from the race. I will not get my Olympic moment,” said Heraskevych.
The skeleton competition starts later on Thursday.
-Reuters
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