IOC to Discuss Russians, Belarusians Joining Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony

As Paris organizers announced when the Opening Ceremony will start for the 2024 Olympic Summer Games, the International Olympic Committee revealed the status of Russian and Belarussian athletes participating in the July 26 event will be determined next month.

“As of today, it is not the case, athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport and taking part in the Games have not been banned (from marching at the ceremony),” IOC Coordination Commission chairman Pierre-Olvier Beckerts-Vieujant told a worldwide press conference on Friday morning, adding the issue will be discussed by the IOC on March 19.

The question of participation in the Opening Ceremony came two days after the International Paralympic Committee said Russian and Belarusian athletes joining the Paralympics would not march in their opening ceremony.

The Opening Ceremony for the Games will start at 7.30 p.m. local time “to make the most of the light,” Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet said Friday, which would give nearly two hours for the event before the sun sets in Paris. About 10,500 athletes will parade through the heart of the French capital on boats on the Seine along a 3.7-mile route.

The July 26 Opening Ceremony has been the focus of intense security work. Tourists won’t be allowed to watch the event as initially promised, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said last week. Darmanin told French TV Channel France 2 in January that some 300,000 spectators will be able to attend, about half the size of what was originally planned.

The IOC has for months carefully laid the groundwork for Russian and Belarussian athletes to participate in the Games but the frustration with Russian government and sports officials has started to become more public. IOC President Thomas Bach spoke to a select group of media on Wednesday a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused him of a “betrayal of the ideals of the Olympic movement.”

Along with Lavrov’s comments, a document was released detailing attempts by lawyers acting for Russia at the Court of Arbitration for Sport to draw comparisons with the Israel-Palestinian conflict and other border disputes in a failed legal case against the IOC was published.

“The Russian government apparently is ignoring the fact they have forced us (into) action,” Bach said. “It is their invasion and in particular it is their annexation of parts of Ukraine. … What is also remarkable is that this aggressivity is coming from the very same government that was behind the scandalous manipulation of the anti-doping system before and during and even after (the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi).”

Asked Wednesday about Israel teams and athletes not taking part in Paris, Bach said “there is no question about this” and that athletes from the delegation would be safe in Paris.

“Since the heinous attack on the Israeli team (during the 1972 Munich Olympics), there were always special measures being taken with Israeli athletes,” Bach said.

The IOC Coordination Commission this week finished its last visit to Paris before preparations kick into high gear with less than 150 days to go before the Opening Ceremony. Organizers have revealed the medals with hexagon-shaped tokens forged out of scrap metal from the Eiffel Tower and the two posters for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Olympic Village was inaugurated last week in the suburb of Saint-Denis, a neighborhood which has been of special emphasis in the Parisian goal to use the Games as a means to rebuild an area which is one of the poorest in the country. More than 14,000 athletes and officials will lodge for the Olympics and 9,000 for the Paralympics.

As the village was inaugurated, French President Emmanuel Macron cited pollution-reduction in the Seine as one of the Games’ positive long-term impacts. The river has largely off limits to bathers since 1923 and when asked by a journalist whether he would bathe in it, Macron replied, “Me, yes, I’ll go.” It is the river that open water swimming is scheduled to be held, one of several events where organizers are using French landmarks modified as sports venues.

Also in Paris this week along with the IOC is a delegation from Los Angeles including Mayor Karen Bass and other civic leaders as the city starts learning more ahead of its role as host for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games. The L.A. delegation will visit the Athlete’s Village and the city of Paris’ temporary Media Center at The Carreau du Temple, which will host hundreds of non-accredited media covering the 2024 Games. The delegation will receive briefings from City of Paris officials regarding preparations to maximize public and active transportation.

“The City of Los Angeles must be prepared to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Bass. “If we wait until the Opening Ceremonies to be on the ground in Paris, we miss a crucial opportunity to learn from the city of Paris during their preparations to welcome the world this summer.”