Polish authorities have defended Friday the possibility of «boycotting» the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate.
This was stated by the vice-president of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pavel Jablonsky, in line with what senior officials of the Ukrainian government, such as the president himself, Volodimir Zelenski, and other partners of Kiev, such as Latvia, have been demanding for weeks.
«My personal opinion is that if athletes from Russia and Belarus were admitted to the Games in 2024, then we should boycott these Games, we should not participate. This is the pressure we should put on the International Olympic Committee,» Yablonsky said in an interview for Polish radio RMF.
Yablonsky assured that the Russian and Belarusian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, respectively, use sport to strengthen their support bases. Therefore, limiting the participation of athletes «is a way to counter Russian propaganda».
Although he specified that any decision about Poland’s role in sports competitions must be taken by the country’s organizations, which operate independently of the government, the authorities, he warned, will put pressure on them to also decide to boycott the next Olympic Games in Paris.
Since the IOC’s intention to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris Games under a neutral flag was made public, Zelenski has accused the top Olympic body of collaborationism with Moscow, warning of the possibility of a boycott, a threat that has been joined by the main partners of Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries.
This Friday, the prime ministers of the three Baltic countries have insisted on this same strategy, since it would be «shameful», according to the Estonian, Kaja Kallas, to put the rest of the athletes in the position of facing the Russians.
«The Olympic Movement should not put athletes from all other countries in this situation,» said Kallas, who notes that Russia «has killed hundreds of Ukrainian athletes, including Olympic and world champions.»
«It is not fair play to now allow them to enter the Olympic arena at the price of Ukrainians’ blood, considering that Russia uses sport as a propaganda tool and that its athletes are actually soldiers,» he said.
Kallas has thus delved into one of the theories wielded by Kiev to argue its refusal to Russia’s presence at the Games, that of its medalists in Tokyo, there were 45 who are members of the Army. «At the Beijing Winter Olympics, every third athlete served in the Armed Forces,» he said.
For her part, Latvia’s head of government, Ingrida Simonyte, ruled out that Russians and Belarusians could participate under a neutral flag because impartiality «does not exist in today’s world», while for her Latvian counterpart, Krisjanis Karins, it would be «morally reprehensible» for these athletes to participate «in any guise» in the Olympic Games.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
