Olympic restrictions ‘humiliating’ for Russians – EU state — RT World News

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said that the conditions set by the International Olympic Committee for Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics are humiliating and ideological in nature.

The minister urged Olympic officials to avoid mixing sports with geopolitics, stressing that athletes should not be banned for political reasons.

He added: “When they start proposing that athletes from any particular country be banned from participating in the Olympic Games, I think we have big problems.” Szijjarto said Friday at the Sports Science and Innovations Conference, adding that this approach gives unlimited space to “Double standards in the world of sports”

Forcing athletes to perform impartially, wear certain clothes, and stand for an anthem that is not theirs if they win, is humiliating and discriminatory, according to the Foreign Minister, who added that he rejects the idea of ​​collective guilt. He stressed that denying them access to the Olympics for political reasons is unacceptable “Out of all limits”

After the conflict began in Ukraine in February 2022, the International Olympic Committee recommended that athletes from Russia and its close ally Belarus not be allowed to compete in international events. In December last year, the body ruled that a limited number of people from the two countries could participate in the Olympic Games as “neutral individual athletes.”

In March, the International Olympic Committee announced that the maximum number of Russians who could qualify for the Paris Games was 55, while the number of Belarusian athletes was limited to 28. However, according to IOC Director James Macleod, the teams are unlikely to meet the quotas, with 36 Russian and 22 Belarusian athletes expected to make it to the Games.

The international body also introduced a set of restrictions on the qualifiers. Russian athletes who openly supported Moscow's military operation in Ukraine or are in any way linked to the state security services or the army are banned from participating in the Games.

While athletes are not required to explicitly condemn the military operation, all athletes must sign the Paris Conditions of Participation, which obliges them to respect the Olympic Charter, including “The Peace Mission of the Olympic Movement.”

Moscow has strongly criticized the restrictions and noted that the IOC is effectively destroying the Olympic spirit and the fundamental purpose of the Games. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the restrictions imposed by the committee are “It goes completely against the ideology of the entire Olympic movement.”