Sport is a policy: Paris may have opposed the Olympians from the Russian Federation and Belarus

Paris Mayor Ann Idalgo promised Ukraine support. And she stated that Russian and Belarussian athletes should be eliminated from participation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Paralympic games in Paris will be attended by 88 Russians and eight Belarusians, but they are under a neutral flag. Their prize places are not taken into account in the medal standings, and if the gold medal wins a neutral athlete, the anthem of the Paralympic Games is heard.

Ann Idalgo, the mayor of Paris, meeting with the mayors of Ukrainian cities, noted that she did not like the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes even in neutral status. Reuters writes about it. "I would like no neutral banner at all, but at least it will mean that they are not honored," said Idalgo to the Ukrainian mayors.

In 2023, the International Paralympic Committee voted against maintaining a complete ban on the participation of two countries imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and allowed them to act as neutral countries. A similar decision was made for the Olympiad, while the International Olympic Committee said that athletes should not be punished for their governments. Russia called this decision unacceptable, and the conditions of participation were discriminatory.

About 140 athletes from Ukraine take part in the Paralympic Games. After the victory of Igor, the sides of 50 meters in free style S13, Ukrainians Ilya Yaremenko and Alexey Virchenko, who won silver and bronze, did not pos near Belarus and left the pedestal after the paralympic anthem was performed. "You are our friends. We were by your side from the first day of Russian aggression in Ukraine," said Idalgo at a meeting dedicated to integration of people with disabilities and health disabilities.