Ukraine ‘depriving’ athletes of chance to compete in Paris Olympics, IOC leader says

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach criticized the Ukrainian government Thursday for barring athletes from competing in some qualifying events for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

“Ukrainian athletes are being sanctioned by their own government for the war that has been started by the Russian and Belarusian governments,” Bach said during a lengthy update on the IOC’s efforts to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutral athletes.

Speaking at a special virtual IOC session called to address unrelated issues with an international sports federation, Bach said Ukraine’s sports ministry kept Ukrainian athletes from participating in several international competitions.

That included some events at last weekend’s Individual European Fencing Championships that were moved to Bulgaria after Poland’s government refused to issue visas for athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports.

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Bach, who won a gold medal in fencing for Germany at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, Canada, said Ukrainian athletes only competed at the championship in disciplines that did not include Russian or Belarusian participants.

“It is really hard to understand why the Ukrainian government is depriving their own athletes from their chance to qualify for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and to make the Ukrainian people proud,” he said.

The Olympic movement, Bach said, is pledging to “support every Ukrainian athlete in their preparation and participation in any competition that they want to take part in,” to make it possible for them to participate in next year’s Olympics.

His speech did not detail what that support would entail.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022 with support from neighboring Belarus, the IOC responded by banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing internationally, affecting events around the world, including in Utah,

But earlier this year, the IOC came out with a new policy that calls for Russians and Belarusians to be able to compete individually as “neutral athletes” — without their flags or other symbols of their countries — as long as they haven’t actively supported the war.

That’s drawn ire from officials in many countries, including the United States and Britain. Ukrainian leaders have slammed the new policy in harsh terms and have raised the possibility of leading a boycott of the Paris Olympics.

Bach, though, pointed to a portion of a long statement condemning the war in Ukraine that was issued in May at the G7 Summit as evidence the U.S. and other Western nations are aligned with the IOC’s position.

“While fully respecting the autonomy of sporting organizations,” the statement said the powerful democracies want to ensure “that Russian and Belarusian athletes are in no way appearing as representatives of their states.”

The IOC has yet to announce whether there will be a way for Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in the 2024 Summer Games, even if they qualify as neutral athletes under the current policy.

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Bach had strong words for Russia, too, saying the country has attacked the IOC’s “athlete-centered, values-based approach” as “unacceptable, humiliating and discriminatory” while “shamelessly trying to put together fully politicized sport competitions.”

He warned such divisions would spell an end to true international competitions including the Olympics, saying “politicization would be the weaponization of sport. This goes against everything sport and we in the Olympic Movement are standing for.”

The IOC president said throughout the continuing “brutal war, our compassion with the human suffering and our solidarity with the Ukrainian Olympic community remain as strong as ever” and described how he believes Ukraine’s Olympic team will be received in Paris.

There will be a “rapturous welcome” and a “wave of enthusiasm cheering on the Ukrainian athletes in their competitions,” Bach predicted, “a powerful demonstration of resilience and of determination. What a moment of pride, joy and hope for all Ukrainian people.”