Germany will not stand a chance to host Olympic Games as long as the government doesn’t allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete at sports events in the country, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has said.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) is considering a bid, possibly for 2040, and in summer received the backing from the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The DOSB will decide on the next steps later in December.
But Bach told Thursday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the government had violated sports’ neutrality ahead of this summer’s Paris Games by denying Russians and Belarussians entry.
“You can only award the Games to a country in which the hosting government doesn’t decide which athletes can take part at the Games and under which conditions,” he said.
Bach, 70, said that as long as this is not settled “you don’t have to further speculate on the hosting of Olympic Games.”
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said last year that Russian and Belarusian athletes would not be granted visa for events in Germany due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A general election is scheduled for February in Germany, and it remains to be seen how a new government will position itself on the potential Olympic bid and the entry issue.
Bach said “I would be delighted if the Olympic Games took place in my home country again” but that for now the country lacks “the respect for the political neutrality of the Olympic Games.”
The IOC allowed Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutral athletes in Paris, under strict eligibility criteria.
The last Olympics in Germany were 1972 in Munich. Bach’s 12-year reign atop the IOC come to an end next year.
