IOC excludes Russian athletes from Paris Olympics ceremony

Quote :

Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be allowed to take part in the traditional parade at the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics, the IOC said Tuesday.

The opening ceremony on July 26 will see thousands of athletes travel on boats down the River Seine for several miles (kilometers) toward the Eiffel Tower, instead of the normal parade of teams inside a stadium.

The International Olympic Committee said athletes from Russia and Belarus who are approved to compete at the Olympics as neutrals will have a chance only “to experience the event” — likely watching from near the river.

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I they should be excluded from the games entirely.

What do you think?

It's a rough decision for the individual athletes, considering games are every four years.
And if you start gatekeeping on countries being in internal or external conflicts and committing major human rights violations, there'll be lots of politics involved, wiping away even appearance of fairness.

As for the ceremony, there's no problem as long as there are no other neutral athletes than these. If there is even one, who then is included in the ceremony, that's more problematic.

There's also pressure on the IOC to ban Israel.

Russia response:


Question: Why Belarus? Belarus is not involved in any war.

While not openly in the war, Belarus is effectively helping Russia by having Russian troops there, forcing Ukraine to keep part of its forces in readiness on that border. They are also fully openly supporting Russia's actions.
Also there is longer dispute, since the 2020 election Lukashenko lost and basically committed coup. The Belarus national Olympic committee - president of which is Lukashenko's son - has been accused of choosing national team athletes by political basis, which itself is reason enough for IOC to sanction them (even if such action has rarely been taken against various countries where this obviously is the situation).

Sad. I doubt they're pro Putin. I also feel sorry for these young guys from both sides who were forced to fight.