IOC leader Bach quizzed by Ukrainian Olympic athlete on Russia issue for 2024 Paris Games
IOC president Thomas Bach has been quizzed by a Ukrainian Olympic athlete at his headquarters about needing to keep Russians out of the 2024 Paris Games
GENEVA (AP) — IOC president Thomas Bach was quizzed by a Ukrainian Olympic athlete on Thursday about needing to keep Russians out of the 2024 Paris Games before he went to see the high jump event of another Ukrainian who had criticized him one day earlier.
Ukrainian track and field teammates Viktoriia Tkachuk and Yaroslava Mahuchikh came to the International Olympic Committee’s home city of Lausanne in Switzerland for the annual meet in the global Diamond League series.
Two-time Olympian Tkachuk was among about 15 athletes who took up the IOC’s invitation to visit its offices and meet Bach, who has this year urged sports bodies to let some Russians with neutral status compete in qualifying events for Paris. He has also criticized Ukraine's government for trying to stop its athletes competing in the same events as Russians.
Tkachuk used the time to give Bach a rare face-to-face meeting with a Ukrainian athlete and “insist on the need to isolate Russia from international competitions,” she later wrote in an Instagram post.
