Will Russian athletes be allowed to participate in the Paris Olympics in 2024? This is a question that is likely to liven up the coming months. Invited this Thursday on France 2, the mayor (PS) of Paris Anne Hidalgo spoke on the subject. She wants them to participate, but “under a neutral banner”, unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has asked for their exclusion. “I think it’s a moment for athletes and that we shouldn’t deprive athletes of their competition,” she says. But I think and I plead, like a large part of the sports movement, for there to be no delegation under the Russian banner. »
“Of course the Games take place in a geopolitical space, insists Anne Hidalgo. I hope that the war in Ukraine will be behind us when we host the Paris Games, which will all the same be the first great moment of long-awaited brotherly encounter, because after Covid-19, after all that we have just live, there is a need to get together around sport. »
The IOC has just established a roadmap
The file is politically sensitive since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded Tuesday from his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that the Russians be already banned from the next Olympics, in less than two years. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday set out a roadmap to reintegrate them into world sport. “No athlete should be banned from competition on the sole basis of his passport”, reaffirmed in a statement the executive of the Olympic body, after consulting representatives of athletes, international federations and national Olympic committees. Behind this proclamation of principle, a series of behind-the-scenes maneuvers were undertaken last autumn to bring back into the fold of Olympism the Russians and Belarusians, excluded from most international competitions since the invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.
“Paris will be ready on time, on time and within budget”, also assured Anne Hidalgo, who also returned to the situation of illegal work on Olympic sites, which were brought to light during checks: “We know that there have been deviations here and there, marginal employers, precisely because we have put in place detection elements”. “We have to go faster and I can tell you that these companies which have been caught red-handed are really going to pay their responsibilities very heavily, because these are criminal offenses”, insisted the mayor of Paris.