The Executive Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided at the beginning of December that those athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport who are part of the group of Neutral Individual Athletes (AIN) and who have qualified through the official systems of the international federations They will be declared eligible to compete in the Paris 2024 Games. Who will these athletes be? Well, whatever meets a series of requirements, and always in an individual category. There will be no Russian or Belarusian teams in the French capital next summer.
The French Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, justified, in an interview this Wednesday with the France 2 channel, the IOC’s decision: “In international law,” she noted, “there is a principle of non-discrimination” and in the case of Athletes of those two nationalities will meet the IOC criteria “since they have not supported the war, and have no relations with government agencies.”
In any case, he insisted that “we will be very vigilant so that they are respected”, before remembering that it is the IOC “that has the authority to decide who participates and who does not participate” and the one that has set the rules so that the Russians and Belarusians who want to be in Paris have to compete without their country’s shirt, without the anthem and respecting the Olympic Charter.
According to the minister, once the framework has been set, it is a matter of respecting it “until the end” and that “Russian power does not exploit sport for its own glory”, which means staying away from its “provocations”. Asked about the possibility of a Russian athlete in the competition flying a flag of her country, the French minister assured that “she will not do it” because “it will not be possible” to access that space with a Russian flag.
On the other hand, Oudéa-Castéra reiterated France’s commitment that the opening ceremony of the Games on July 26 be held on a route along the Seine River in the center of Paris, so that it will be the first time it has occurred in a space open to the public and not in a stadium, with the security problems that this implies. However, he also confirmed that they are considering a plan B in the event of force majeure: “If there were a tightening of the security context, with a multiplication of attacks on our territory, obviously the president and the French hope that we have an alternative capacity.” .
