MOSCOW, December 15, Andrey Simonenko. President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov said that athletes, by choosing a neutral status, become hostages of other people’s interests, but the organization is ready to help them.
On December 8, the IOC announced the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to the Games in Paris in an individual neutral status, subject to a number of criteria. According to the decision of the executive committee, neutral athletes and their personnel must refrain from any activity related to the national flag, anthem, emblem or any other symbol of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, national federations or Olympic committees, as well as from supporting the CBO at any official event or in Media before, during and after the Olympic Games.
“”We live in a free state, where everyone has the right to make their own choice, the president stated this. But by choosing neutralization, the athlete becomes a hostage to other people's interests. We are ready to help every athlete figure it out . This is due to the signing of declarations of a political nature, which cannot be avoided, and the abandonment of the national flag. Also, neutral athletes cannot count on the participation of international federations, ROCs in their preparation, and the IOC clearly ruled this out back in March. Each neutralized athlete will be alone alone with a set of problems that have nothing to do with sports,” Pozdnyakov said in a report presented at the Olympic meeting of the ROC.
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