While theUkraine protests against the possibility of a presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Martin Fourcade believes that an athlete should not be banned”because its president is behaving like a madman”. The former French biathlon star, IOC member and president of the Paris-2024 Athletes’ Commission, said he was in favor of the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to competitions, under a neutral banner. “As a representative of athletes and as an athlete, I think we should think about a return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to sports competitions”, said the French in his first public statement on the subject, Saturday, February 11, on the Norwegian channel NRK. Emphasizing that he was speaking in a personal capacity and that it was a question of principle, not necessarily linked to the Paris Olympics, he specified that he was not “not the one who will decide or who has to say that they should compete in Paris”.
Martin Fourcade also affirmed that he “fully supports the Ukrainian people”. “I am 100% with them”added the former champion, saying he was in favor of sanctions against Russia. “There is no part of me that understands the Russian government”, he said, saying he was in favor of sanctions against the Russian authorities. Follow our live.
Russia deems the call to ban Russian athletes “unacceptable”. Russia on Saturday denounced the call to ban Russian athletes from the 2024 Olympics. “The attempt to dictate the conditions for the participation of athletes in international competitions is absolutely unacceptable (…) We are currently seeing an undisguised desire to destroy the unity of international sport”, said Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin. The day before, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that the presence of Russian athletes at the Paris Games would be “a sign of violence and impunity”, trying during a meeting to convince sports ministers from several countries. The President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, denounced in a letter dated January 31 this Ukrainian intransigence, which according to him goes “against the fundamentals of the Olympic movement”.
“Massive” attacks against Ukraine. Russia carried out an attack on Friday “massive” with dozens of missiles against energy sites in Ukraine, according to kyiv. “Ukraine has temporarily lost 44% of its nuclear power generation capacity, 75% of its thermal power plant capacity and 33% of its cogeneration power plant capacity”Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal said on Friday.