• Russia’s participation in the Olympics in 2024 in Paris will be a topic of debate.
• Zelenskyy wants Russia to be banned from participating in Paris.
• IOC’s backing this week for certain Russians to compete in Paris was questioned by Zelenskyy.

The International Olympic Committee‘s (IOC) backing this week for certain Russians to compete in Paris was publicly questioned on Friday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as it has for five consecutive Olympics under Thomas Bach’s leadership.

Russia’s participation in the Olympics in 2024 in Paris will be a topic of debate.

Since the steroid-tainted 2014 Sochi Winter Games, which were Bach’s first as head of the International Olympic Committee, Russia and its athletes have been in danger of being banned from each Olympics, yet they have ultimately competed.

This time, Russia is invading Ukraine. In the past, Russian officials supported doping and then attempted to hide the proof of that incident.

While its military is invading and attacking his country, Zelenskyy wants Russia to be banned from participating in Paris.

In his discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron this week, he emphasized this.

On Thursday, the Ukrainian ministry of sports issued the country’s first boycott threat. That came after the IOC outlined its preferred method for allowing Russians who had not publicly backed the conflict to qualify for Paris and participate against Ukrainian athletes in a neutral capacity.

“It is obvious that any neutral flag of Russian athletes is stained with blood. I invite Mr. Bach to Bakhmut,” Zelenskyy said in a video address, referring to the city in eastern Ukraine wrecked by the war. “So that he could see with his own eyes that neutrality does not exist.”

When the military invasion began a few days before the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Games, the IOC was more outspoken against Russia.

It was a flagrant violation of the Olympic Truce, which Bach values and is supported by the UN.

Last February, the IOC recommended “with a heavy heart” sports bodies exclude Russia and Belarus from hosting and competing “in order to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants.”

It could not be fair for Russians to continue competing while “many athletes from Ukraine are prevented from doing so because of the attack on their country,” the IOC said last Feb. 28.

The IOC’s altered public stance has angered Ukraine now, 18 months before the Paris opening ceremony and as qualifying cranks up in the 32 sports.

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