The actions of international officials in relation to Russian sports go against the core idea of the Games, the president has said
Sports officials have distorted the original concept of the Olympic movement and have become too focused on the business side, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a live Q&A session on Thursday.
He was asked to comment on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) latest decision to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete in the upcoming 2024 Paris Games as neutral athletes, provided that they adhere to a set of restrictions.
Putin responded by saying that everything international sports officials have been doing in regard to Russian sports has been a “complete contradiction and a perversion” of the ideas of Pierre de Coubertin, who conceived the modern Olympic movement with the idea that sports unite people.
The Russian president noted that international officials are too wrapped up in the business side…