The next Olympics could be boycotted by up to 40 nations, Kamil Bortniczuk, Poland’s minister of sport and tourism, predicted.
His remarks follow the joint rejection of an IOC proposal to allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete in 2024 by Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.
Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris Olympics if that occurs.
The IOC, meanwhile, claimed on Thursday February 2, that any boycott would only “punish athletes.”
Before a meeting on February 10th, Bortniczuk said he thought it would be possible to put together a coalition of 40 countries, including Canada, the United States, and Great Britain, to back a block on the IOC’s plans.
“Considering this I don’t think we will face tough decisions before the Olympics and, if we were to boycott the Games, the coalition we will be a part of will be broad enough to make holding the Games pointless”, he added.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stated that it would “explore a pathway” to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in Paris under a neutral flag, adding that “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport”.
The move prompted condemnation, with the UK Government saying the plan was a “world away from the reality of war”.
Vadym Guttsait, the minister of sports for Ukraine, stated that in order to maintain the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes that the IOC executive committee imposed immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country’s sporting bodies needed to “strengthen communication” with international federations.
IOC President Thomas Bach, however, later clarified that it was just a “protective” measure for such athletes and now maintains that they should not be discriminated against.
On Thursday, sports ministers from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland said “any effort by the International Olympic Committee to bring back Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete, even under a neutral flag, should be rejected”.
The US government has stated its support for the suspension of the sports governing bodies of Russia and Belarus from international sports organizations and has urged those organizations to stop broadcasting events into those nations.
The IOC warned Ukraine and other countries about the repercussions of threatening a boycott and reaffirmed that there had been no discussions regarding the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to participation.
“Threatening a boycott of the Olympic Games, which the NOC of Ukraine is currently considering, goes against the fundamentals of the Olympic movement and the principles it stands for,” the IOC wrote in a question-and-answer document published on Thursday.
Author-Roberta Appiah
