Paris 2024: "Our athletes need to be at the Olympics" (V. Gutzeit, Minister of Sport for Ukraine)

"Our athletes need to be at the Olympics (in Paris 2024). Our flag will be at the Opening Ceremony, at the competitions, our athletes will represent our state so that everyone in the world will see that Ukraine is, was and will be," said Vadym Gutzeit, Minister of Sport for Ukraine, in an interview with AFP on 15/08/2023.

However, the minister, who chairs the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, made this position conditional on the absence of Russian athletes. "If Russian athletes are at the Olympics, then Russian propagandists will try to turn this celebration of sport into a celebration of propaganda, just as Hitler once did (at the Berlin Olympics in 1936). I believe that the IOC will not allow the aggressors to do this," said Gutzeit.

"We have a mission to unite all the athletes of the world in a peaceful competition. We have the responsibility not to punish athletes for the acts of their governments. The athletes support us in this approach," said Thomas Bach (GER), president of the International Olympic Committee during a round table with the media held by videoconference on…