It remains exciting: today (02/13/23) at 5:00 p.m. was the deadline for proposals for a joint paper by three dozen governments on the Russia-Paris 2004 question. France supposedly won’t sign, I hear. Just take a look. But that’s not surprising, because Macron has made his point of view more than clear. However, Anne Hidalgo is the actual business partner of the IOC – more on this below in the text.
What happened in the past few days, I exclusively published an enlightening letter from the IOC over the weekend:
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has called on sporting leaders to break the alliance of 36 countries that agreed on Friday to keep Russia and Belarus from participating in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Here is the email that was sent by the IOC administration to the relevant National Olympic Committees (NOC) on Saturday (02/11/23), one day after the remarkable video conference of ministers and state secretaries from three dozen countries.
The IOC wants to influence a resolution that the representatives of democratic nations led by Great Britain, Poland and the Baltic States are still working on.
In the email to the NOK assumed James Macleod, IOC Director Olympic Solidarity & NOC Relations, participants in the ministerial conference made false statements. McLeod does not name names but claims: “Following yesterday’s meeting of sport ministers, we were made aware of many false comments made during the meeting and subsequently in the media that misrepresented the outcome of the meeting itself.”
The fog of the IOC vocabulary is quickly lifted:
The “false comments” alleged by Macleod are nothing more than positions deviating from IOC doctrine.
For example, the new British Secretary of State who was in charge of the conference was very clear Lucy FrazerCanada’s sports minister Pascale St-Onge and the Polish Minister of Sports Kamil Bortniczuk voiced.
Lucy Frazer wrote on Twitter: “It was a very productive meeting. I have made the UK position very clear. As long as Putin continues his barbaric war, Russia and Belarus must not be represented at the Olympic Games.” Pascale St-Onge also stated: “Russian and Belarusian athletes must be excluded from the 2024 Olympic Games. I have reiterated this to my international colleagues and President Zelenskyi.”
A privilege to host @ZelenskyyUa today at our summit on Olympic participation.
It was a very productive meeting between 35 nations, and I made the UK’s position very clear: as long as Putin continues his barbaric war, Russia and Belarus must not be represented at the Olympics. pic.twitter.com/ohN9eFriKg
— Lucy Frazer (@lucyfrazermp) February 10, 2023
At and after the meeting, Bortniczuk explained the proposal to only admit those athletes from Russia and Belarus who had clearly spoken out against the war – in a team of dissidents and refugees.
The mayor of Paris had this idea a few days ago Anne Hidalgo for the first time, which now also speaks out against the participation of the Russians. In contrast, French President Emmanuel Macron is on the IOC line. Here, too, the Olympic details are exciting: Because the business partner of the IOC for the summer games in Paris is not Macron, but Hidalgo – according to the statutes, she has the controversial one for ages Host City Contract signed with the IOC. In this respect, even Anne Hidalgo’s reversal was a defeat for the IOC and will become a permanent political burden in the Olympic joint venture.
The idea of including Russians and Belarusians as dissidents in a refugee team would solve the problem for those Belarusian athletes who have been fighting the dictator for years Alexander Lukashenko fight and went into exile. The idea can also be seen as grandiose in terms of sports policy because the IOC has been forming its own refugee team at the Olympic Games since 2016 and has been promoting this initiative with enormous effort ever since. Meanwhile, there are with the native of South Sudan Yiech Pur Biel even a refugee IOC member. Arguably, it should get the IOC in trouble.
The IOC headquarters in Lausanne is determined to prevent proposals such as those made by Hidalgo and Bortniczuk from being included in the resolution of the summit meeting of sports ministers. IOC Director James Macleodwho as chief organizer of the European Games 2015 once served the Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Alijew served, appealed to the National Olympic Committees:
“We now know that a final declaration will be negotiated this weekend and we would urge you to contact your minister to ensure that he either does not sign the declaration or at least ensures that the wording reflects the.” reflects the position of the Olympic Movement as much as possible.” (complete email as in the original)
NOK representatives should therefore ensure that ministers negate a political declaration or change it in the sense of the IOC. To that says Mahmut Ozdemir (SPD), who took part in the conference as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior: “I find that extremely remarkable, to express myself diplomatically correctly.”
According to Özdemir, there were no votes in favor of Russia and Belarus participating in the Olympic Games at the virtual meeting, which was attended by a total of 20 ministers and numerous state secretaries. “There were no objections,” says Özdemir. “Everyone has lined up.”
In addition to 30 European nations, Canada, the USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand were involved. The only item on the agenda was the January 25th statement by the IOC Executive Committee. There has never been such a high-level gathering of politicians from democratic nations who are solely concerned with a controversial IOC plan. Especially since the IOC was expressly not invited to do so.
The Minister of Sports of Ukraine Vadim Guttsait, also his country’s NOK President, is now pursuing less confrontational tactics than just a few weeks ago. In a letter to IOC President Bach and the entire so-called Olympic family on February 8, he presented impressive documentation about the many Russian athletes and officials who support the war of aggression – and about the enormous damage to the sports infrastructure in Ukraine. Guttsait coordinates closely with sports ministers from numerous countries. An Olympic boycott remains an option for Ukraine.
A possible boycott was not an issue at the meeting of 36 nations, which was followed by a speech by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Selenskyj was initiated. No effective alliances can currently be forged with boycott threats. And it is precisely this diplomatic approach that is the great danger for the IOC and could jeopardize the plans of Thomas Bach thwart That of me in SPIEGEL The published letter from IOC Director James McLeod is an illuminating detail in this dispute. It follows the classic IOC pattern. It is about sovereignty of interpretation, sovereignty of opinion, lobbying and propaganda.
“It is a clear sign when three dozen countries come to an agreement and strive for a common approach,” says State Secretary Özdemir. At the conference he renewed the position of the Federal Republic: Russia and Belarus should continue to be excluded from international sporting events. There is currently no reason to invite the sport of these countries to return to the Olympic arenas.
No representative of the 36 participating nations has expressly spoken out in favor of the participation of Russians and Belarusians in the summer games in Paris. Not even those four nations that have been named as alleged dissenters in the international media since Friday: France, Australia, Japan and Greece.
It is no coincidence that France (Paris 2024) and Australia (Brisbane 2032) are future Olympic hosts. Japan just had the Tokyo Games and still hasn’t finally scrapped the 2030 Winter Games project. And in Greece it is an IOC member Spyros Capralos very influential. Capralos, once involved in shady Olympic ticket deals, owes a lot to IOC President Bach. In 2025, Capralos hosted the IOC General Assembly in Athens, at which Bach either resigned after twelve years as presidency or – this rumor keeps getting new fuel – he was in office for another four years with an amendment to the Olympic Charter.
Capralos also participates as president of the association European Olympic Committees (EOC) plays a key role. Its EOC fully supports the line of the IOC on Russia and is therefore working towards the participation of Russians and Belarusians in Paris. At the same time, however, these two nations will not be admitted to the third EOC European Games in June 2023 in Krakow. Capralos cannot resolve this contradiction.
While representatives of democratic nations are currently struggling to come up with a joint resolution and a unified approach, the IOC and Russia are trying to break up this still virgin alliance. The IOC wants to change the mind of sports minister. Russia’s sports minister Oleg Matytsin of course described the conference as “absolutely unacceptable” and once again sang the praises of the alleged independence of sports organisations.
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