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Russian Olympic chief criticizes IOC’s indifference to Paris mayor’s statement

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo earlier paid a visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, where she stated that the French capital of France "would not welcome" athletes from Russia and Belarus if they come to participate in the 2024 Olympics this summer

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should have reacted to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s statement about athletes from Russia and Belarus being "unwelcome" at the 2024 Summer Olympics, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said on Monday.

Hidalgo earlier paid a visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, where she stated that the French capital of France "would not welcome" athletes from Russia and Belarus if they come to participate in the 2024 Olympics this summer.

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.

"It seems that the organizing city is unable to host athletes who qualified for the event. The IOC should start thinking about moving the Games to another location," Pozdnyakov said. "However, the IOC leadership still remains silent on the political demarche from [Paris Mayor Anne] Hidalgo."

The sports website InsideTheGames quoted Hidalgo as saying on Monday: "I want to tell the Russian and Belarusian athletes that they are not welcome in Paris."

"I would also like to tell the Ukrainian athletes and all the Ukrainian people that we support them very much," InsideTheGames quoted Hidalgo as saying in a video clip posted by Ukrainian YouTube channel, United News.

IOC’s regulations against Russia

The International Olympic Committee Executive Board convened for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20 and following the opening day it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in the Parade of Athletes and also exclude them from the 2024 Olympics overall medal standings.

The IOC, however, ruled that Russian athletes, cleared to participate in the upcoming Olympics, would not have to sign anything denouncing their country’s special military operation in Ukraine.

On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.

The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.

The suspension means that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.

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