Will they be present in Paris next summer? Less than a year before the Paris Olympic Games, the fate of Russian athletes is not yet known. So, this Friday, the Kremlin said it hoped for a return of Russia to “the Olympic family”, while Russian athletes were banned from competition after the launch of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, on February 24, 2022 .
Russia nevertheless aims to be able to send athletes, at least under a neutral banner, to the 2024 Paris Olympics. “We hope that reason will triumph, that the idea of Olympism will triumph and we will reintegrate the Olympic family,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
Russia will not boycott the Olympics
Last week, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdniakov, affirmed that Russia would not boycott the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, and that every Russian athlete was free to choose whether or not they wanted to participate under a neutral banner. .
For its part, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended in March the reintegration of Russian and Belarusian athletes into international competitions, under a neutral banner and “on an individual basis”, for those who did not actively support the offensive in Ukraine. According to Stanislav Pozdniakov, the IOC’s recommendations do not allow a large number of Russian athletes to participate in the Olympic Games.