IOC statement, Pozdnyakov’s concerns and Matytsin’s position: how the situation with the admission of Russians to the Games in Paris is developing

The question of Russian participation in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris still remains open, although there are only four months left before they start.

The IOC promised to give a final answer on the admission criteria for domestic athletes at the organization’s executive committee on March 18-19 in Lausanne.

“All principles were established and published on December 8, 2023.

They will not be changed.

Regarding the implementation of these principles, the executive committee will make appropriate decisions at its meeting next week,” the press service of the Match TV organization quotes.

In Russia, the meetings are awaited with different moods.

For example, the head of the ROC, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, is convinced that those who want to go to the Olympic Games will have to sign documents condemning the conduct of the SVO.

According to him, colleagues from Lausanne shared this information with him.

“The conditions of behavior at the Olympic Games will be determined, which will be in strict accordance with the principles voiced at the December IOC Executive Committee.

Athletes taking part in the Olympics must condemn the SVO and sign some other papers, which, from the point of view of the lawyers of the legal department of the ROC, can lead to negative consequences in the form of violation of the law,” the functionary warned.

Later, he explained the situation in more detail and recalled one of the points in the IOC principles of December 8, which states the following: “Athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports who actively support the war will not be allowed to compete.”

Pozdnyakov is sure that the committee’s requirement is as vague as possible, and it is not entirely clear what is meant by active support.

However, he has no doubt that the athletes will be forced to agree on some special documents.

“The answers are obvious, but we will not hear them from the authors of all these invented conditions.

And the fact that any neutralized individual athlete will be required to confirm his refusal to support the CBO is a fact beyond doubt.

It is already written in the criteria, which the IOC, according to its own statements, will not change.

There are no illusions here,” the manager wrote.

At the same time, after a meeting of the ROC executive committee on March 14, he assured that the option of boycotting the 2024 Olympic Games was still not considered or raised.

However, Pozdnyakov called the participation of Russians in the Paris forum possible only if equal and fair conditions are provided.

Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin spoke out much more cautiously, calling to wait for the final verdict of the IOC.

He promised to make the final decision after a meeting with domestic federations on various types.

However, he is confident in the need to move towards each other.

“We should not turn away, close ourselves, or boycott this movement.

We must preserve the possibility of dialogue as much as possible and compete.

Those athletes who have won this right and passed the qualifying selection: wrestlers, judokas, taekwondoists, tennis players.

Maybe a number of more disciplines will appear.

Let’s see what the final decision of the IOC turns out to be, but for now the position is that there will be no new recommendations and regulations,” TASS quotes the minister.

Unfortunately, some countries are trying to do everything to prevent Russians from visiting France.

For example, representatives of the national Olympic committees of the Baltic states opposed athletes from Russia and Belarus taking part in the opening ceremony of the Games.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, spoke out even more loudly.

The mayor directly stated that it would be better if they did not come at all.

At the same time, when asked whether sanctions should also be imposed on the Israelis in connection with the military conflict in the Gaza Strip, she replied that this was out of the question.

The State Duma is confident that such a position of individual politicians can lead to a negative outcome.

Deputy Svetlana Zhurova did not rule out that Hidalgo, together with the country’s President Emmanuel Macron, would ban the entry of Russians, or the IOC would put forward insurmountable demands for them.

“If they allow it, then everyone else will boycott.

Because of one or two athletes from Belarus or Russia, they will try to blackmail the IOC and the French government a month before the Olympics.

They will blackmail for a long time, and then Macron will break down and say: “The whole world is asking me, so I don’t allow them.”

It seems to me that there will be such a scenario.

Then there will be interviews with rivals who will say that they do not want to compete with the Russians and so on.

Everything will gradually inflate,” Zhurova suggested in an interview with Sport-Express.

In turn, her colleague Dmitry Svishchev, chairman of the Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, noted that if athletes are required to condemn the conduct of the SVO, they will actually be pushed to violate the laws of their native country.

“The IOC will carefully check ours, their social networks, etc.

Many federations and athletes have already declared that they will not perform under such discrediting conditions.

This is a complex and political issue.

We are being driven into such a framework that it is becoming harder and harder to take part in international competitions,” added Svishchev.

In federations for various types, they also adhere to diametrical points of view.

For example, the president of the Wrestling Federation, Mikhail Mamiashvili, reported this.

“While the decision-making process is underway, we are waiting for the final wording on the admission from the IOC.

I think we can expect them in the near future.

Now there are several positions of domestic sports organizations on the issue of the participation of our athletes in the Olympic Games in a neutral status.

And some of them are just radically different from each other,” he admitted.

But the head of the Ski Racing Federation, Elena Vyalbe, is firmly convinced that you should go to Paris exclusively on equal terms with your opponents.

“The Olympic Charter says that athletes compete.

But then everything somehow changed, and countries began to compete with each other, and sponsors regulated everything.

In general, if every person minded his own business, then there would be more order in the world, because when sponsors dictate what needs to be done, they do not act very well, to put it mildly,” she complained.

The head of the All-Russian Swimming Federation, Vladimir Salnikov, supported her.

In his opinion, the criteria published by the IOC are unacceptable.

“Our position on this matter has not changed.

We do not consider participation possible under such conditions.

We have a corresponding decision of the presidium.

In this case, all the risks associated with the performance are assumed by the person himself,” the functionary noted.

And the President of the Cycling Federation, Vyacheslav Ekimov, like Mamiashvili, called for waiting for the verdict of the IOC Executive Committee.

At the same time, some athletes themselves are not ready to go to Paris in a neutral status.

This statement, in particular, was made by Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Arthur Dalaloyan.

“The conditions set out do not suit us.

We are not ready to participate in the Games on them.

There is no resentment.

Yes, I would like to speak.

I set myself the goal of completing at least one more Olympics.

But if the situation is like this... Everything that is done is for the better,” he concluded.