Ukraine's Olympic Hero Beleniuk Hopes For Russia-free Games

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2024) Ukraine's sole Olympic champion from the Tokyo Games, Zhan Beleniuk, is looking forward to defending his Greco-Roman wrestling title in Paris but has told AFP he believes the Russians will stay away in protest at the IOC's hardened stance on their participation.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and the war is still raging, having cost tens of thousands of lives and huge damage to the infrastructure of the country.

Beleniuk -- born in Ukraine to a Ukrainian mother and a Rwandan father -- welcomes the fact that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) eventually decided to take the tough action against the Russians that his compatriots had been calling for.

The IOC had been heavily criticised for refusing to ban the Russians and their Belarusian allies outright, instead saying they could compete as neutral athletes subject to certain conditions.

The Olympic body's tone has hardened of late, barring them from participating in the opening ceremony in Paris, which led to a furious reaction from Moscow last month.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova lashed out, saying the IOC had "slipped into racism and neo-Nazism".

While Russia's sports minister has said he is opposed to a boycott, Moscow is yet to make its final decision on its attendance at the Games.

Beleniuk, who in 2019 became the first black person to be elected to the Ukrainian parliament, said he believes Russians will eventually refuse to accept the conditions imposed on them by the IOC and stay away.

"I have read some articles citing Russian officials who are responsible for sports. They told the papers they were thinking about boycotting this competition (the Olympics) because of IOC's new conditions," Beleniuk told AFP from Ukraine.

"For us it is very good as we talked about that, that they could not compete in this kind of competition with us athletes who they are at war with."

He said the IOC had tried to find a "balance" by allowing Russians to compete as neutral athletes.

"Now we can see Russia have not agreed with this, like us, so the next step for Russian sports can be the boycott and that is good," he said.