International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, speaking at an extraordinary session of the organization, he focused on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, emphasizing that world sport is under threat.
Extraordinary session of the International Olympic Committee was held on Thursday in an online format.
In his speech at the session, Bach paid special attention to sanctions against Russian sports, as well as problems related to the policy of the Ukrainian government. According to the head of the IOC, the positions of Russia and Ukraine are not rational.
«Despite our recommendations, we are faced with two conflicting sides. Russia wants us to ignore the military conflict. Ukraine wants to completely isolate and exclude Russia wherever possible. Both positions are not rational,» Bach said.
«One side says that Russia is doing completely wrong things and cannot be justified. In Russia they tell us something completely different. Ukraine is sure that anyone with a passport of Russia or Belarus cannot be allowed to compete. A huge number of representatives of federations and athletes ask us protect the rights of all athletes and find the right way out of the situation. Every athlete who abides by the rules should be able to compete. Our values and the strength of the Olympic Movement are at stake, nothing else,» he added.
Bach stressed that the IOC was, in fact, between two fires, and world sport is under serious threat due to attempts by some forces to divide it.
“Some forces want to divide and destroy our efforts, world sport is under serious threat. If someone from the outside decides who is allowed and who is not, then everything will come to the point that only those who agree on political views. This will lead to the fact that there will be different competitions where politically friendly countries will compete. Then the Olympics will simply cease to make sense,» the head of the IOC said.
«The decision will not be easy» Bach paid special attention to the admission of Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, stressing that the decision will not be easy.
“Our response is transparent. Our values are our compass, which is why we issued these recommendations. The decision will not be easy, but in politics this cannot be. Only the naive believe that this happens. Russian and Belarusian governments. But the world is not black or white. The IOC is in a situation between two warring parties,» Bach said.
At the same time, the head of the committee expressed bewilderment about the policy of the Ukrainian government, which, in fact, imposed sanctions against its own athletes.
“As for the Ukrainian athletes, they were absent from the same judo and taekwondo tournaments. They were not allowed by their own government, they were subjected to their own sanctions. I categorically cannot understand why the Ukrainian government is doing this. This deprives Ukrainian athletes of the opportunity to qualify to the Olympics and please their fans. Why can Ukrainians compete with Russians in tennis, but not in table tennis?» Bach noted.
«Hundreds of millions of people could watch how Ukrainian athletes are represented and compete at the Olympics. We aim to develop an opportunity for their participation. We will support every specific Ukrainian who wants to compete at the Olympics», — emphasized the functionary.
Discrimination from Poland Bach also raised the issue of Poland's refusal to issue visas to Russian fencers, condemning these steps of the Polish government and calling them discrimination. According to the head of the IOC, these actions are contrary to what his organization is fighting for.
“It all goes against what we want and against what we fight for. Most of the athletes support or at least respect what we are doing now. I want to thank them for that. The individual fencing tournament in Bulgaria took place last weekend, it was originally supposed to take place in Poland, but the Polish government refused to issue visas to Russians, which was real discrimination,» Bach said.
On March 28, the IOC Executive Committee recommended that international federations allow Russian and Belarusian athletes who did not support the SVO to participate in international competitions as neutral athletes, while suggesting that teams from Russia not be considered as participants in international competitions in team sports.
«No one wants to see athletes suffer because of the actions of their government. I would like to thank the international taekwondo and judo federations for following our recommendations. I liked how the competitions with the participation of Russian athletes went. I would like, so that other federations also take note of this,» the IOC President added.
Sanctions against the IBA Also on the agenda of the session was the issue of recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA). The IOC has recommended a decision that the IBA not host an Olympic boxing tournament at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. Also, following the results of the vote, the IOC adopted the recommendation of the Executive Committee not to return the recognition of the association.
«»The IBA showed complete disrespect for the principles of international sport ahead of the 2024 Olympics. They showed a lack of understanding of what we want to see from them. In order to protect the interests of the sport, we decided to give the IBA a second chance. In 2019, the IBA did not fulfill our requirements. Over the years, they did little to nothing to change the situation. In the end, we came to the conclusion that the IBA should not organize a boxing tournament at the Paris Olympics. We also recommend that the IBA not organize a boxing tournament at the 2028 Olympics,» — stressed IOC Director General Christophe de Koepper.
«Based on the budget for this year and next, we saw that the money in the IBA is still coming from Gazprom, which is not in line with the new recommendations of the IOC,» added De Koepper.