Olympics: IOC claims president Thomas Bach focused by hoax telephone name from Russian group

Thomas Bach, president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC), was claimed to be the goal of a hoax telephone name from a Russian group pretending to be the African Union Fee.

The IOC mentioned on Thursday that the callers needed to debate the problems round Russian involvement at Paris 2024. It follows the Olympics’ governing physique banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from the opening ceremony earlier this week.

Particulars launched in regards to the name described it as a “new incident within the Russian disinformation and defamation marketing campaign” in opposition to the organisation and Bach, who’s a German former Olympic fencer.

“Pretend calls purporting to be from the African Union Fee seem to have been made by the exact same group that has already attacked numerous international political leaders and different high-ranking personalities in the identical manner,” a press release from the IOC learn.

“Throughout the calls, an individual pretending to be the chair of the African Union Fee needed to have arguments, particularly from the IOC in opposition to the politicisation of sport by the Russian authorities, in an effort to put together a press release in opposition to such politicisation.”

Athletes representing Russia and Belarus have been banned from the Olympics following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, however they will compete on the Paris Video games as neutrals.

What the IOC choice on the opening ceremony means

Russians and Belarusians who qualify for the Video games will likely be competing as impartial athletes with out their flags and anthems following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The opening ceremony on July 26 will see 1000’s of athletes journey on boats down the River Seine for a number of miles towards the Eiffel Tower, as a substitute of the conventional parade of groups inside a stadium.

“They won’t take part within the parade of delegations throughout the opening ceremony, since they’re particular person athletes,” the IOC introduced following an govt board assembly.

The IOC added athletes from Russia and Belarus who’re authorized to compete on the Olympics as neutrals could have an opportunity solely “to expertise the occasion” – seemingly watching from close to the river.

The IOC has laid out a vetting process for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be granted impartial standing, with necessities together with that they need to not have publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “particular army operation”, or be affiliated with army or state safety businesses.

The IOC mentioned it expects about 36 impartial athletes with Russian passports and 22 with Belarus passports to qualify for the Paris Video games.

A call on whether or not these athletes will likely be allowed to participate within the August 11 closing ceremony will likely be taken “at a later stage”, the IOC mentioned.

Any medals gained by these athletes is not going to be included in any medal desk and they’re going to have a particularly composed anthem with no phrases.