Kyiv could drop a threatened boycott of next year's Paris Olympics if athletes from Russia and Belarus, allies in the war in Ukraine, compete under a neutral flag rather than their national colors, Ukraine's sports minister told Reuters
Vadym Huttsait said there had been no decision to soften Ukraine's stance but indicated Kyiv could be open to reversing a policy that would likely rule out Ukrainian athletes from the summer games.
"If this will happen, will we participate or not? The decision has not been made yet, and therefore there is no softening yet," he said. Zhan Beleniuk, a wrestler who won Olympic gold in Tokyo and is now a member of Ukraine's parliament, said the decree opened the way for athletes to take part. Huttsait, an Olympic gold medal winning fencer decades ago, told Reuters the choice was an extremely difficult one, and that the original decision was still in place but was under discussion.
Huttsait 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 Olympics body is expected to allow Russian and Belarusians to compete under a neutral flag but that is not enough for some senior Ukrainian officials.
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