The President of the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) said this Friday for the reintegration of Russian and Belarusian athletes into international competitions in accordance with the guidelines adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which wants to “learn” ways to do it.
“I think so. The position of the IOC is the most reasonable.
The COP president defends that “sport should send a message of understanding to the parties, it should not support one side against the other”, while participation in the 2024 Olympics in Paris is being discussed.
“Sport should be a factor of appeasement and rapprochement between the warring parties. Everything that has been done – not in the sense of finding balanced and peaceful solutions, but in the sense of arming one of the parties against the other – it does not seem to me that this should work. And you can see what’s going on…” he appreciated.
Constantino recalls that it is “part of the history” of sport to send signals that lead to “rapprochement and pacification of the relations of the parties to the conflict”, regardless of whether “countries and governments understand it or not.”
The fact that Ukraine recognizes the boycott of Paris 2024 in the event of the reintegration of Russians and Belarusians and that several countries have already shown their opposition to the opening directives of the IOC, including the United Kingdom and Denmark, which criticize the change in opinion of IOC President Thomas Bach, was perceived by the Portuguese leader as usual, “because similar situations have happened in the past” at the biggest event on the planet.
Constantino says that the issue has never been discussed between the CC and the Portuguese government, which ensures the “completely autonomous and independent position” of the body he leads, and his course is “coordinated” with the sports organizations.
“There is a sign of openness on the part of the IOC, and events are still difficult to determine, to predict, namely, what will be the reaction of many countries that may try to determine the positioning of their national Olympic committees,” he admitted.
José Manuel Constantino believes that it is better to “wait for new developments” regarding IOC signals, believing that at the moment it is “premature to close any scenario, since everything is open”.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo stands in solidarity with the IOC, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that his French counterpart ban the presence of athletes from countries involved in the military aggression that began on February 24, 2022.
The Paris 2024 organizing committee has no decision-making power, and the IOC reminded on Wednesday that the “sole power” in this matter belongs to the international federations.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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