Poland should boycott Paris 2024 Olympics if Russian, Belarusian athletes participate

A deputy foreign minister said Poland should boycott the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes participate.

Pawel Jablonski told the RMF FM radio broadcaster that he would call on Friday the Polish Olympic Committee to make a decision.

The International Olympic Committee IOC last week said that it had been looking at options to include Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutral contestants at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which would mean competing under the Olympic flag.

If I was to evaluate the moral qualifications of sports officials, I could say that, in many cases, they would not be the highest, Jablonski said.

Jablonski admitted that there was a possibility that money was involved in the case, but he said it would be highly blameworthy.

Even if there was no money involved, such a decision by the IOC-PAP would be a crime and a mistake, Jablonski said.

Jablonski said that this had happened to a great extent thanks to pressure from Poland, because European sports unions decided to put a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes.

Putin, like Lukashenko, uses sports to build support, so the ban on participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in global competitions counteracts Russian propaganda, the deputy minister said.

Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia condemned IOC efforts to bring Russian and Belarusian athletes back into competition.