By Margaryta Chornokondratenko
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine is still considering whether or not to stick with its decision to bar its athletes from competing against Russians or Belarusians, the sports minister said on Wednesday, a year before the start of the Paris Olympics.
The comment by Vadym Huttsait in an interview with Reuters suggests Kyiv could be open to reversing a controversial policy that would likely rule Ukrainian athletes out of competing at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Ukraine in April barred its national sports teams from competing in Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic events that have competitors from Russia and Belarus regardless of whether they are competing under a neutral flag.
“We have started discussions with the presidents of federations, the federations themselves, the sportspeople: if this will happen, will we participate or not? The decision has not been made yet, and therefore there is no softening yet.”
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, destroyed cities, uprooted millions and hammered the economy. Russian troops used Belarus as a staging ground for their abortive attack on Kyiv early on in the invasion.
Some Ukrainian athletes condemned the blanket ban on competing against Russians and Belarusians as a self-inflicted wound that would deprive Kyiv of representation and its sports stars of their careers.
Huttsait, an Olympic gold medal winning fencer decades ago, told Reuters that the choice was an extremely difficult one, and that the original decision was still in place but was under discussion.
“We can’t be next to them (the Russians), but on the other hand we are punishing our sportsmen if they cannot compete… they want to go out there, win, and show our flag on the pedestal.”
Huttsait said they were discussing with Ukrainian sports federations if athletes could compete against Russian and Belarusian athletes taking part under a neutral flag.
The Olympic governing body, the IOC, says it condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but that it has to “manage a complex reality”. It is expected to allow Russian and Belarusians to compete under a neutral flag.
The minister said he last talked to the IOC three weeks ago and tried to convince them that Russians and Belarusians cannot compete in the Olympics while Ukrainian cities are being bombed.
The IOC has said that Ukraine’s decision not to permit its athletes to participate in qualifiers for the Paris games under the ministry’s current policy is “hard to understand.”
(Reporting by Margaryta Chornokondratenko, writing by Max Hunder; editing by Tom Balmforth and Christina Fincher)
