The French Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (pictured above), repeated this on Monday 3 April during a trip to Nice to launch Olympic and Paralympic Week: the decision on the participation of Russian and Belarussian athletes in the Paris Games will be taken by the IOC. To the IOC and to the IOC alone. But the word of the head of state, Emmanuel Macron, will not be ignored. “It is the IOC that is the decision-maker, but the IOC also undertakes a whole series of consultations and the word of the head of state of the host country is obviously important in the context of these consultations,” she told the media, quoted by AFP. “On this subject, we must all be resolute around Ukraine, but we also know that there is a UN principle of non-discrimination of people because of their nationality or passport. For the moment, the question of the Paris Olympics has not yet been raised. The Head of State will speak about all this in the summer. For the moment, these are the first recommendations made by the IOC to the international federations, to help them structure their own events and in particular the qualifying tournaments”. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra will have the opportunity to raise the issue this week with one of the major players in the debate, Ukrainian Sports Minister Vadym Guttsait. The French Minister is due to meet him on Wednesday 5 April by videoconference.
