The Olympic champion urged not to worry if Ukraine boycotts the Games

MOSCOW, December 10, Oleg Bogatov. Four-time Olympic champion in biathlon Alexander Tikhonov said that it makes no sense to be upset about the possible decision of the Ukrainian authorities to boycott the 2024 Games in Paris due to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowing Russians and Belarusians to compete in a neutral status, since sports in the country are in an unenviable state .
The IOC on Friday announced the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to the Olympics in an individual neutral status subject to a number of criteria. The games will take place from July 26 to August 11. On Sunday it became known that the Ukrainian authorities are considering the option of refusing to participate in the 2024 Olympics due to the admission of Russians and Belarusians.
«»It's very good if Ukrainians don't compete at the Olympic Games. After all, all the Nazis who are in power there now are moral monsters. And what Ukraine has left now in sports, they have nothing. Well, they will conquer there three to five medals, no more. Therefore, you shouldn’t worry; on the contrary, you should welcome the fact that they are going to boycott the Games and not go. There will be less garbage at the Olympics, that’s my opinion,” Tikhonov said, commenting on the possible refusal of Ukrainians to participate .
“And the people in Ukraine are normal. I trained a lot there, we were friends, we sang and mowed together,” the agency’s interlocutor noted. “Therefore, I want to emphasize that I am not talking now about the people, but about the nationalists who are subject to full extermination. Even General (Pavel) Sudoplatov said that (the leader of the USSR in the mid-20th century, Nikita) Khrushchev then released about 30 thousand (Ukrainian) nationalists from prison. And here is the result.»

In March, the IOC Executive Committee recommended that Russians and Belarusians be allowed to participate in international competitions in a neutral status if they are not associated with the military structures of the countries and did not speak out in support of the SVO. In the fall, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) due to the inclusion of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in the Olympic councils. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced on November 6 that it had registered the ROC's appeal against the IOC suspension.