Poland believes it will be possible to build a coalition of some 40 countries, including the U.S., Britain and Canada, by Feb. 10 supporting the call to block Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympics, a Polish minister said on Thursday.
The International Olympic Committee announced last week that athletes from the two countries, banned from competing in Europe, might be allowed to earn slots for the Paris 2024 Games through Asian qualifying, although the IOC later said it was"Any effort by the International Olympic Committee to bring back Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete, even under a neutral flag, should be rejected," sports ministers from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland said in a statement on...
They called on "all international sports organizations and federations" to remove Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions until the war ends.The three Baltic states and Poland, members of the European Union and NATO which border Russia and Belarus, have been strong supporters of Ukraine and among the first to send weapons following Moscow's invasion almost a year ago.
Athletes from Russia and its neighbour Belarus, which aided Moscow's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, have been banned from many international competitions since. "With regard to the presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Paris 2024 Games, it should be recalled that the qualification system is determined by the international federations, the IOC and the IPC ," Paris 2024 said, stressing that the IOC had taken several measures against Russia and Belarus.
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