MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/: A split in the global sports is likely to be widened further in case athletes from Russia are barred from the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, Russia’s senior sports official said on Tuesday.
"I am not giving assessments at the moment seeing how some of the sports federations are dabbling saying that it is unacceptable to do so based on the nationality," Igor Artemyev, the chair of the Supreme Council of the Russian Rugby Federation (RRF), said addressing a news briefing on Tuesday.
"Try to recall statements on behalf of international tennis federations, led by common-sense people, who tried to explain why it is impossible to follow the impeded line of politicians," he continued. "The ideals of Olympism are being destroyed. This is what will eventually happen if this story drags on and the common sense would not prevail."
"It is understandable that conflicting sides should not be pitted to play against each other and there is no need for instigations," Artemyev stated. "However, if we are barred from the [2024] Olympic Games, the split would only widen."
"But, I believe that the government would resort to all possible measures to make sure that we play and participate in all serious large-scale tournaments," he added.
Craig Reedie, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), stated earlier in the day that the public opinion was likely to tend barring Russia and Belarus from the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in France.
According to Reedie, there is no clear-cut understanding today how to manage the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Olympic qualifiers.
On February 28, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that international sports federations bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from partaking in international tournaments citing the special military operation in Ukraine as the reason. Consequently, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all world sports tournaments.
Following the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Paris will host the Summer Games in 2024, while Los Angeles will have the Games in 2028. At the 138th IOC (the International Olympic Committee) session in Tokyo last year, Australia’s Brisbane was selected to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games.
