‘No boycott!’ JOA president says Jamaica won’t bow to pressure, skip Olympics amid Russian war tension

Jamaica Olympic Association President Christopher Samuda (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Source: Jamaica Observer
Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) President Christopher Samuda says Jamaica will not boycott the Paris Olympic Games next year.

The call for a boycott comes from the governments of 34 other nations who want the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to clarify its stance on neutrality as it regards Russian and Belarusian athletes being allowed to compete at the Olympic Games.

The opposite regards Russia and Belarus’ invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in a war that has now lasted over one year.

“As long as these fundamental issues and the substantial lack of clarity and concrete detail on a workable ‘neutrality’ model are not addressed, we do not agree that Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed back into competition,” the 34 nations said in a joint statement.

The 34 nations are led by the United States of America, Britain, France, Canada, and Germany, who collectively amounted to a fifth of all participating athletes at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

But Samuda says a boycott goes against the Olympic Charter and its philosophy of allowing athletes an opportunity to compete at the highest level of the sport.

“The Olympic Charter enunciates that each athlete should be given the opportunity to transition to the Olympic stage,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

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