Former world boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko believes Russian athletes could start at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris if the war in Ukraine is publicly condemned.
“Russians and Belarusians cannot participate unless they say ‘no’ to the war,” the mayor of Kiev told the AFP news agency on Monday: “If they publicly oppose the war, they can participate. But they are afraid .”
Currently, Russians and Belarusians are barred from international competitions in most Olympic sports. One is “either for or against the war,” said Klitschko. The 51-year-old urged athletes to “tell your government to stop this senseless war.” The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj recently called for a boycott if Russians should start in Paris.
At the end of January, the IOC under President Thomas Bach brought up the possibility of paving the way for athletes from Russia and Belarus to return to international competitions. “I would be happy to invite Thomas Bach to Ukraine so that he can see the destroyed villages and towns for himself. So that he can see how many people have been killed. He doesn’t understand it,” said Klitschko.
The Polish Minister of Sport, Kamil Bortniczuk, recently suggested that athletes from Russia and Belarus who are critical of the government should start on the Olympic refugee team. This path could be “a compromise solution” in the discussion about participation in the 2024 Summer Games in Paris and prevent an impending boycott by other countries.