Olympics chief says Palestinian athletes to compete in Paris, even if they fail to qualify

IOC President Thomas Bach speaks during an interview with AFP ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne on April 26, 2024. (GABRIEL MONNET / AFP)
IOC President Thomas Bach speaks during an interview with AFP ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne on April 26, 2024. (GABRIEL MONNET / AFP)

Between six and eight Palestinian athletes are expected to compete at the Paris Olympics, with some set to be invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) even if they fail to qualify, its head Thomas Bach says.

Bach says that qualification events for the Paris Games, which start on July 26, were ongoing for a number of sports.

“But we have made the clear commitment that even if no (Palestinian) athlete would qualify on the field of play … then the NOC (National Olympic Committee) of Palestine would benefit from invitations, like other national Olympic Committees who do not have a qualified athlete,” he says in an interview at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He says he expects the Palestinian delegation to number “six to eight.”

Bach says that the International Olympic Committee “from day one of the conflict” in Gaza had “supported in many different ways the athletes to allow them to take part in qualifications and to continue their training.”

Bach dismisses suggestions the IOC has treated Russia differently over its invasion of Ukraine compared with Israel and its war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the October 7 onslaught by terrorists on southern Israel.

“The situation between Israel and Palestine is completely different,” Bach says.

He says he has been even-handed in his public statements on Ukraine, the Hamas attack on Israel and the “horrifying consequences” of the war in Gaza.

“From day one, we expressed how horrified we were, first on the seventh of October and then about the war and its horrifying consequences,” Bach says.

“We have always been very clear as we have been with the Russian invasion in Ukraine.”

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