U.S. says Russian athletes should be allowed at 2024 Olympics
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The Russian Olympic Committee building in Moscow on Dec. 7. Photo: Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, as long as they do not compete under their nations’ flags or colors, Susanne Lyons, chair of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) board of directors, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday.
Why it matters: Lyons was backing an idea proposed by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach last week to allow the athletes to compete despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Belarus' support of the invasion.
- Bach's proposal, and Lyons' support of the proposal, mark a reversal for both Olympic governing bodies from earlier this year, when IOC called on sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes in response to the invasion, and USOPC supported the bans.
- Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has criticized Bach's proposal, saying last week that "Using sports to whitewash war crimes is sickening."
What they're saying: Lyon's told the Journal the reversal was necessary to uphold the Olympic ideal of allowing athletes to compete even if they come from countries whose governments have committed objectionable or even violent actions.
- "Even though this leaves a pretty foul taste in your mouth, to look like you’re sliding back on this, it really is essential to the movement," Lyons said. "We very much still stand with the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian athletes."
The big picture: Lyons said the restrictions on the use of Russian or Belarusian national symbols could go beyond the sanctions placed on Russia during the 2022 Beijing Winter Games for its state-sponsored doping scheme.
- Russian athletes were not allowed to present the Russian flag or use its national anthem, but they still wore red, white and blue and competed under the name the “Russian Olympic Committee.”
- Lyons said restrictions on the teams during Paris 2024 could be stricter, potentially including no flag, anthem, associated colors or other identifications of the countries.
Go deeper: Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner calls Ukraine war "insane and criminal"
