Daina Gudzinevičiūtė meets the President of the NOC of Ukraine

2023-02-03

Ms Gudzinevičiūtė met with Vadym Guttsait, President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.

On Thursday, Daina Gudzinevičiūtė, President of the National Olympic Committee of Lithuania (LNOC), had a virtual meeting with Vadym Guttsait, the President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. The main topic of the conversation was support for Ukraine and the measures that should be taken to keep the door to the Paris Olympics closed for Russian and Belarusian athletes.

“The Ukrainian sports community sees and appreciates Europe’s united position and support. Europe does not allow Russians or Belarusians to take part in its events – the European Games and the European Youth Olympic Festivals.

While talking to the President, I assured him that Lithuania’s position on this issue remains unchanged – we have supported, we are supporting and we will support Ukraine. We do not support the participation of Russians and Belarusians in the Paris Olympics or in any other sporting event while the war is ongoing in Ukraine. We cannot imagine how Ukrainian athletes fighting for freedom could compete with Russians in the Olympic Games.

That is why we have agreed that we must do everything we can at this time to prevent Russians and Belarusians from participating in the Paris Olympics. Together with the national sports federations and organisations, we must demand from the International Federations in every possible way that they maintain a principled position and do not allow Russians and Belarusians to participate in the qualifications for the Olympics.

We must also call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to urge the International Federations to comply with the current recommendations to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions.

We will stay in contact with the President and together with the Nordic and Baltic countries we will take all measures to ensure that the aggressor countries do not participate in the Olympic Games,” said the Head of the NOCL.

On Thursday, the NOCL also appealed to its members – the Olympic Sports Federations and the federations of the sports included in the Paris Olympics programme – to unite with their counterparts from other countries and demand that the International Federations maintain their principled position and ensure that Russians and Belarusians are not allowed to compete at Paris 2024.