The Ukrainian President invited the IOC chief to visit Bakhmut over his argument over the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has invited International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach to visit the frontline town of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian soldiers are engaged in a bitter battle with Russian forces.
Zelenskyy extended the provocative invitation on Friday after the Olympic Committee said a “path” should be explored to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Paris 2024 Games.
Russia and its ally Belarus have been banned from most Olympic sports since invading Ukraine.
“I invite Mr. Bach to Bakhmut. So that he can see with his own eyes that there is no such thing as neutrality,” Zelenskyy said in a speech shared on social media.
“It is obvious that every neutral banner of Russian athletes is stained with blood,” he said.
Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region is currently the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine.
We know how often tyrannies try to use sport for their ideological interests. It is obvious that every neutral flag of Russian athletes is stained with blood. I invite Mr. Bach to Bakhmut. So that he could see with his own eyes that neutrality does not exist. pic.twitter.com/icSdvgpD87
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 27, 2023
Bach said on Friday that Russian and Belarusian athletes could hope to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics, but only if they compete under a neutral flag.
The mission is to bring together athletes from all over the world, “especially when their countries are in conflict,” Bach said during a press conference in Oberhof, Germany.
“The principle that was set is: No Russian or Belarusian athletes,” Bach explained, but “individual, neutral athletes from these countries without identification with their nationality” could “possibly” compete next year.
However, he stressed that the IOC was only “at the beginning of very detailed deliberations” on this matter.
Russian forces have been attempting to take control of Bakhmut for months in what Kyiv has described as some of the bloodiest battles since the Russian offensive began on February 24 last year.
Zelenskyi said “it is impossible not to be disappointed” with the IOC chief’s stance.
“I spoke to him more than once and never heard how he would protect the sport from wartime propaganda by bringing back Russian athletes to international competitions,” Zelenskyy said.
“We will do everything for the world to protect sport from the political and other interference of a terrorist state, which is simply inevitable when Russian athletes compete.”
In a statement Wednesday, the IOC said its executive board met to discuss the issue and that “the vast majority of participants” expressed that “no athlete should be barred from competing solely because of their passport” and that “Governments do not have to decide which athletes can and cannot compete in which competition.”
Statement on solidarity with Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and Belarus and status of athletes from these countries👇 https://t.co/OGk1HqoN1N
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) January 25, 2023
Ukraine’s Sports Minister Vadym Gutzeit has informed the IOC that his country plans to boycott the 2024 Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to take part.
“There must be no agreements with representatives of terrorist countries,” said Gutzeit.
“I hope that all associations, athletes and the whole world have taken a close look and that we don’t have to resort to this extreme measure,” Gutzeit warned, with a view to an Olympic boycott in Ukraine.
Bach said on Friday that excluding athletes simply because of their passport does not meet human rights requirements. If exceptions were made and athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports were excluded from the Olympic Games, it would set “an enormously dangerous precedent for world sport,” Bach argued, adding that other countries were also affected by wars.
“What do you say to an athlete from Yemen, from Iraq, from Libya, from Armenia, from Azerbaijan, from Ethiopia?”
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Thursday offered Russian and Belarusian athletes the opportunity to compete in this year’s Asian Games.