2024 Olympics: Paris mayor calls for Russian athletes to be banned from Games

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo changed her stance on Russian competitors at the 2024 Olympics on Tuesday saying they should be banned “while the war continues” in Ukraine, her office said.

Last month Hidalgo said she believed Russians could take part “under a neutral flag” to avoid “depriving athletes of competition”.

On Tuesday she told French media her earlier position was “indecent” because a neutral flag, “does not really exist” although she said there should be a place for “dissident Russians who want to parade under the refugee flag”.

Her office said this was a “clarification” of her position.

They would, she said, be athletes who do not “support Vladimir Putin in his aggression”.

The Refugee Olympic Team competed for the first time in the Rio Games in 2016, where it was made up of 10 athletes originally from Syria, Ethiopia,

South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Hidalgo did not address the issue of the participation of Belarusian athletes.

While French President Emmanuel Macron and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not immediately respond to Hidalgo’s remarks, the French ministry of sports and the Olympics told AFP the question of a “possible participation” under a neutral flag in Paris is being “discussed” by the IOC but “has not been the subject of any decision”.

The ministry reaffirmed French “support” for “maintaining all economic, political, diplomatic, sports and cultural sanctions” against Russia.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Russians and Belarusians have been banned from most world sporting events.

Hoodlums vandalize National Stadium cables in Lagos

The relative peace and security being enjoyed by the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos seem to have been compromised following series of vandalisation of facilities at the Stadium.

Our investigation revealed that in less than two weeks, thieves have been having a field day at the Stadium without any arrest by either the Stadium Police or local security guards employed by the Ministry.

The thieves who came calling last week carted away cables and batteries of the generator at the back of the Indoor Sports Hall of the stadium and came again over the weekend to steal the batteries of the generator and cables serving the Main Bowl of the Stadium. This prompted the Stadium management to embark on renting of generators to power facilities at the Indoor Sports Hall to enable those who have paid for it’s use for basketball clinic to continue their programme.

It was further revealed that both incidents were not discovered until some days after the robbery; Immediately after the discovery, the Stadium management decided to go round and take inventory of their facilities to determine the level of the vandalisation.

However, what surprises most people is that there is a Police Station stationed at the Stadium whose efforts are being complimented by private security guards employed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports which did not deter the thieves from having a field day at the Stadium. Apart from this, people are wondering how the cables where easily carted away since it is not what one or two persons can carry as it involves loading them in a vehicle to be moved away which has raised a lot of questions.

When our correspondent wanted to know the level of the vandalisation from the Lagos Liaison Officer of the Ministry, Nkana Mbora, she stated that she is still taking inventory of the vandalized items and will not make any statement now.

As part of efforts to avert another vandalisation of it’s facilities the stadium management has began restricting the movement of people in and out of the stadium.

As at the time of filling this report, they’ve already given marching order to some people from coming to the stadium till further notice and even threatening them with arrest.

However some of those affected by this order have advised the management to look inwards and re jig their security network positing that a situation where private security personnel employed by the Ministry are owed close to eight months salary arrears creates room for compromise.