International Olympic Committee: most French people welcome Russian and white players to participate in the Paris Olympic Games as neutral

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 14 (reporter Ji Ye, Dong Yixing) 3.25 million tickets for the first phase of the Olympic Games have been sold on the 500-day countdown to the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, two thirds of the ticket buyers come from France. The International Olympic Committee said on the 13th local time in Lausanne that the third-party investigation agency showed that most French people welcome athletes holding Russian or Belarus passports to participate in the Paris Olympics as neutral.

An online survey collected feedback from 1005 French people aged 18 and above, and 72 percent of respondents supported athletes holding Russian or Belarus passports to participate in the Paris Olympics. Among them, 28 percent think that Russian and Belarus players can participate on behalf of their own countries; While 44 percent think that the athletes of these two countries should participate in the competition as neutral, without using the national flag, the national anthem or any national identity.

The International Olympic Committee said that in the past few months, this way of Russian or Belarus players participating in the competition as neutral has been adopted in some international sports events.

The International Olympic Committee said that although the issue of Russian or Belarus athletes participating in the Paris Olympic Games has not been discussed yet, the International Olympic Committee is discussing the basic conditions for these two athletes to participate in international competitions. At present, no decision has been made, and consultations with all international individual sports associations are needed.

According to the statistics of BOCOG Paris, in the first stage of ticket sales, a total of 158 countries and regions participated in the purchase, of which two thirds of the users came from France. The second stage of ticket sales will start on March 15.

The Paris Olympic Games will be held from July 26 to August 11, 2024, and the Paris Paralympic Games will be held from August 28 to September 8, 2024.