Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, host city of the 2024 Olympic Games, has decided to adopt the hard line advocated by kyiv, saying that she is in favor of the pure and simple exclusion of Russian athletes “as long as there is war ” in Ukraine. ” It’s up to the IOC to decide “, recalled Anne Hidalgo, whose position has evolved since the end of January, when she said she was in favor of their participation “ under a neutral banner “, in order not “ deprive athletes of their competition “. The file is politically inflammable, particularly in the host country: at the end of January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded from his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that the Russians be already banned from the next Olympics. But, nearly a year after Moscow began to invade Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has drawn up a roadmap to reintegrate them into world sport, saying that “ no athlete should be barred from competition solely on the basis of their passport “. Despite repeated calls from kyiv to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympics, the IOC has declared “ to study » the possibility of authorizing them to participate, under a neutral banner. Emmanuel Macron, he has still not spoken on the subject. Contacted Tuesday by AFP, neither the Elysée nor the Ministry of Sports, nor the IOC had immediately reacted to the new position of the mayor of Paris.
Anne Hidalgo does not want Russian athletes as long as there is war in Ukraine
