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2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris

Ukrainian athletes to shun Russian counterparts at 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris

"We have reached agreements with the international federations regarding the necessity to greet [athletes] during and after sports competitions," Vadim Gutsayt said

MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Ukrainian athletes participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer will not exchange greetings with athletes representing Russia, Ukrainian National Olympic Committee (NOC) President Vadim Gutsayt said on Friday.

According to him, the Ukrainian NOC has already talked with international sports federations about this.

"We have reached agreements with the international federations regarding the necessity to greet [athletes] during and after sports competitions," Gutsayt said speaking on Ukrainian TV. "We have agreed that we [Ukrainians] will not greet each other [with Russians], we will not shake hands."

The head of the Ukrainian NOC announced earlier in the year that Ukrainian athletes at the 2024 Olympics would be prohibited from contact with Russian athletes. This means they will not be allowed to pose for pictures, give joint interviews and "definitely not shake hands."

According to him, Ukraine will be represented at the upcoming Olympics in France by 140 athletes in 23 sports, the smallest contingent the country has ever sent to the Olympic Games.

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

IOC’s regulations against Russia

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) 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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