MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2022) The speech by President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach at the G20 summit in Bali, in which he called for political neutrality in sport, was a "facade," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Bach, addressing the G20 leaders' lunch at the opening of the summit, condemned the politicization of sport and called on the G20 leaders to support political neutrality. The IOC president also said that the fundamental goal of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is "bringing the whole world together in peaceful competition, without any discrimination whatsoever."
"Bach's performance at the G20 is little more than a facade, an attempt to veil ongoing and clear politically motivated acts by the IOC. The absence of any concrete IOC proposals to ensure the application of this claim during the G20 meeting is direct proof of that. In less than a year, thanks to Bach and other functionaries, Russian athletes were suspended from all possible international competitions, and Paralympic athletes were not allowed to attend the Games in Beijing, when most of them had already arrived in China for training. This rhetoric from Bach is no epiphany," Chernyshenko said as quoted by his office.
Chernyshenko also accused Bach of "behind the scenes" lobbying and creating precedents for the exclusion of Russian athletes and sports federations from international federations.
On February 28, the IOC issued a recommendation to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from international competitions or only allow them to compete under neutral status. Most sport federations have complied. Russia, in turn, has repeatedly called for the politicization of sport to be abandoned.
Moreover, on Wednesday, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) suspended the membership of the Russian Paralympic Committee in the organization.
