Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to not let athletes from his country participate at the 2024 Paris Olympics if Russia participates, claiming allowing Russia to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics would be tantamount to showing that “terror is somehow acceptable”.
The International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday the Olympic Council of Asia had offered Russian and Belarusian athletes the chance to compete in Asia, giving them a qualification pathway for the 2024 Games.
Ukraine said it could boycott the event if Russian and Belarusian athletes take part even if both countries participate under a neutral flag.
“Attempts by the International Olympic Committee to bring Russian athletes back into the Olympic Games are attempts to tell the whole world that terror is somehow acceptable,” he said in his nightly address on Sunday, January 29.
He said Russia must not be allowed to “use (the Games) or any other sport event as propaganda for its aggression or its state chauvinism”.