With just over 500 days to go until the opening of the Paris 2024 Games (D-512 on Thursday 2 March), solidarity with Ukraine is gaining momentum. After France, whose sports minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, announced last week a one million euro aid package for the athletes, Germany is now offering very concrete support. The Minister of Sport, the Social Democrat Nancy Faeser, announced that her country would host Ukrainian athletes in its sports facilities in preparation for the next Olympic and Paralympic Games. “We want to make our contribution to help Ukrainian sportsmen and women in their preparation,” she explained on Wednesday 1 March. “We will enable them to train in Germany and prepare for international competitions“. In detail, the German proposal is to make the network of Olympic preparation centres, the “Olympiastützpunkten”, available to Ukrainian athletes and teams. Germany has at least one in each of its 16 regions.
