Athletistic / Olympic Games. Ukrainian Olympic fencing champion Olga Kharlan shared her opinion on the admission of athletes from Russia and Belarus to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris (France). There, athletes from these two countries will compete as neutral athletes.

“Of course, I don’t support all of this. I absolutely cannot agree with this.

These people return from competitions in their country. Besides, I don’t think they finance themselves, the State continues to finance them. There have already been cases where athletes competed as neutral athletes and then returned home to celebrate with their country’s jerseys and flags. Does this all sound like neutrality?

Many neutral athletes openly support the CBO (the wording has been changed in accordance with the position of the Russian Federation. – Rating Athletistic) and his army. I believe that with this decision the IOC is simply turning a blind eye to the real facts. From now on, they blame the international federations. I hope that at the Paris Olympics, the control of neutrality will be much better.

There are other athletes in these countries. There are not a lot. They live neither in Russia nor in Belarus and openly declare that they are against the Northern Military District and that they support and even help Ukraine. In my opinion, these people should be able to participate, because they are truly neutral,” Harlan was quoted as saying by Spanish newspaper As.

On December 8, 2023, the IOC decided to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics with individual neutral status and subject to a number of conditions. It should be noted that athletes from Russia and Belarus can participate in the Paris Games only in individual disciplines, while team sports competitions will be held without the participation of these countries.

The 2024 Olympic Games will be held in the French capital from July 26 to August 11, 2024.



Athletistic