Russian athletes should be allowed to participate in the Paris Olympics because ‘they aren’t the ones dropping the bombs’ in Ukraine, according to GB News presenter Bev Turner.
The comment came about during a debate with co-host Andrew Pierce on the UK Government’s decision to drop its opposition to Russian athletes competing at the games.
Bev and Andrew admitted they ‘strongly disagree’ on the matter, with the latter citing how ‘powerful’ the sporting boycott of South Africa was during the apartheid era.
Emily Carver and Bev waded in on the discussion to accuse those responsible of shunning Russian athletes of ‘virtue-signalling’.
Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner 'strongly disagree' on the matter
GB NEWS
“If you’ve banned a country from international sport, that means the athletes are banned too”, said Andrew.
“There’s no hard measure. You have to think about how powerful the sporting ban was over apartheid.”
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GB News Political Commentator Nigel Nelson pointed to the shift in stance for Russian and Belarusian athletes competing at Wimbledon, with organisers last year deciding to end the ban.
“But how much of a sanction is it really?”, Carver questioned.
“It has had absolutely zero impact thus far. Does it really make a difference?
“Or is it about virtue signalling from countries who want to show they disapprove?”
Putin's invasion of Ukraine has led to Russia being barred from sporting events
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Nigel Nelson, Andrew Pierce, Bev Turner and Emily Carver debated the topic on GB News
GB NEWS
She also pointed out that Russian athletes who will be heading to the games under a neutral flag will be investigated to ensure they are not supportive of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“How can you check that?”, Bev questioned.
“Does it matter?”, she added.
While qualifying athletes from Russia and Belarus are able to compete as neutrals, they will not be taking part in the opening ceremony, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed.
The IOC said they would not be part of the opening ceremony “since they are individual athletes, but an opportunity will be provided to them to experience the event”.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said the country is ‘outraged’ by the conditions imposed.
“We are outraged by the unprecedented discriminatory conditions imposed by the International Olympic Committee”, she said.
So far, 12 individual neutral athletes with a Russian passport will be taking part along with seven individual neutral athletes with a Belarusian passport.