The competitors are allowed to participate as neutrals in individual sports, but are barred from team events
The mayor of Paris has suggested that Russian and Belarusian contestants stay away from this summer’s Olympic Games in the French capital, despite being officially allowed to compete as neturals.
“I want to tell the Russian and Belarusian athletes that they are not welcome in Paris,” Anne Hidalgo told Ukrainian athletes at a training center in Kiev on Thursday, while on a visit to Ukraine.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) initially pushed for a complete ban on competitors from Russia and Belarus after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. However, last December the IOC ruled that a limited number of people from the two countries could participate as AINs (individual neutral athletes).
🚨 Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo: "Russian and Belarusian athletes are NOT welcome at the Paris Olympic Games!" #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/5L27ZyBTJ2
— Blood Games 2024 (@BloodGames2024) March 30, 2024
Earlier this month, the mayor of Paris said she would prefer for Russian and Belarusian contestants not to come at all. “We cannot act as if [the Russian military operation in Ukraine] did not exist,” she told Reuters.
When asked about Israel’s Olympic participation – in the context of the Gaza war, raging since the Hamas attack on October 7 – Hidalgo insisted there was no comparison to be made.