Athletes from Belarus and Russia will not take part in the July 26 Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony, which will be the first to take place along a river, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board declared on Tuesday. “While they are individual athletes, AINs (Individual Neutral Athletes) will not take part in the parade of delegation teams during the opening ceremony, but they will have the opportunity to witness the event,” IOC Director of Olympic Solidarity and National Olympic Committees Relations James Macleod stated at a Lausanne, Switzerland, press conference. “Athletes from the former Yugoslavia used this same scenario as independent Olympic participants at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.” The choice of the closing ceremony will be decided upon later.
Athletes who meet the eligibility rules for the games and hold a passport from Belarus or Russia are known as AINs. The AINs’ flag and anthem have also been approved by the executive board. The song is wordless. Athletes from the AIN will not have their medals showcased on a medal table of the National Olympic Committee. The AIN anthem will be played throughout the triumph ceremonies and an AIN flag will be hoisted if an AIN athlete wins a medal. The IOC declared in December that competitors from Belarus and Russia would only be allowed to compete as individual neutral athletes at the Paris Games this year due to the ongoing conflict in their home country.
They have to fulfill eligibility conditions in order to compete. Athletes who actively support the conflict against Ukraine will also not be eligible, nor will teams of athletes from Belarus and Russia be taken into consideration. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin stated earlier this month in an interview with French broadcaster France 2 that approximately 104,000 people are anticipated to line the Seine for the Opening Ceremony, with an additional 220,000 on elevated roadways along the six kilometer (nearly four mile) stretch of the river that will host the event.
For security reasons, the attendance capacity was halved, according to Darmann. However, he stressed that there was no particular terrorist danger aimed at the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced earlier this month that competitors competing in the Paralympic Games from Belarus and Russia will not be present at the Opening Ceremony on August 28. Officially, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will begin on July 26 and end on August 11. August 28 is when the Paralympic Games start, and they end on September 8.
