Former head coach of the Ukrainian national team Andriy Shevchenko called on the IOC to prevent Russians and Belarusians from participating in international competitions.
“There is no sport outside of politics. Sports competitions of the level of the Olympics are an opportunity to broadcast any message to all people on earth at once.
And if athletes from Russia or Belarus enter the arena with or without flags, this message from the Olympic Committee is unambiguous for the whole world - the war is over, you can forgive everything and forget everything. But the war is not over. It destroys our cities every day, cripples the childhood of our children and takes the lives of the best people.
The world must remember this, the world must know that the struggle for peace and freedom continues. I call on the IOC to prevent Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing until the war in Ukraine is over and to strongly condemn Russian aggression,” Shevchenko wrote on his Facebook page.