UKRAINE, February 2. The Ukrainian National Olympic Committee’s threat to boycott the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris goes against the pillars of the Olympic movement and the principles it stands for, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) press service said on Thursday.
The Ukrainian Olympic Committee will discuss boycotting the upcoming Olympic Games on February 3.
"Threatening a boycott of the Olympic Games, which the NOC of Ukraine is currently considering, goes against the fundamentals of the Olympic Movement and the principles it stands for," the IOC said. "A boycott is a violation of the Olympic Charter, which obliges all NOCs to ‘participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes.’ As history has shown, previous boycotts did not achieve their political ends and served only to punish the athletes of the boycotting NOCs."
The IOC recommended at the end of February 2022 that international sports federations ban Russians and Belarusians from competitions following the events in Ukraine. The IOC issued new recommendations on January 25, proposing to allow athletes from these countries to participate in competitions under a neutral status if they haven’t actively supported the special military operation in Ukraine. Later, President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov noted that the IOC did not require Russian athletes to condemn the special military operation.