Summer Games 2024: IOC condemns Ukraine’s Olympic boycott threat

The International Olympic Committee has condemned Ukraine’s threat to boycott the Paris 2024 Summer Games.

The threat violates the fundamentals of the Olympic Movement and the principles it stands for. “It is extremely unfortunate to escalate this discussion at this early stage with a boycott threat,” the IOC said. The participation of individual neutral athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has not yet been discussed and decided, it said. This Friday, an extraordinary NOK general assembly in Kyiv is expected to discuss a possible boycott.

“A boycott is a violation of the Olympic Charter, which obliges all NOCs to participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes,” the statement said. As history has shown, previous boycotts have not achieved their political goals and have only served to punish the athletes of the boycotting National Olympic Committees (NOC).

The IOC around President Thomas Bach had recently triggered a controversy with the announcement that it wanted to open up opportunities for athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international competitions despite the war in Ukraine. This could also open the way for these athletes to the games in Paris, albeit only under a neutral flag. The neutral athletes would have to respect the “strict conditions that we have set, including no identification with their country and NOCs and full compliance with anti-doping rules,” the IOC said. How the athletes should prove their neutrality is still open, criteria for this would be developed.

IOC refers to resolution

In addition, the IOC referred to a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly of December 1, 2022. According to this resolution, this resolution recognizes that “major international sporting events can be held in a spirit of peace, mutual understanding and international cooperation, friendship and tolerance and without any form of discrimination should be organized and that the unifying and conciliatory nature of such events should be respected”. All UN member states, including the governments of Ukraine and Russia, had passed this resolution by consensus. The NOCs of other countries where conflicts and wars were also raging would never question the participation of their athletes in international sports competitions.

There will be no further visit by Bach to the Ukraine. After the IOC announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj invited Bach to the embattled Bakhmut. Bach visited Ukraine in the summer of 2022 and met Selenskyj. After that, we continued to exchange information over the phone. The IOC sharply condemned the war from the start and imposed sanctions on the Russian and Belarusian states and governments. The IOC stands firm in “this crystal clear” position. The sanctions are non-negotiable.

On Wednesday, the IOC received backing from the United Nations. A press release quoted two UN experts as urging the IOC to “ensure non-discrimination against athletes based on their nationality”. The IOC also referred to the fact that a “large majority of participants” in consultations with associations and athlete representatives had spoken out in favor of such a step.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation can imagine re-admission “only under strict conditions”. For Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD), on the other hand, the IOC initiative is “completely the wrong way”. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as well as Poland condemned the IOC initiative in a joint statement by the ministers responsible for sport on Thursday.