Afghanistan will field a gender equal team at the Paris Olympics with three women and three men in a largely symbolic move, while no Taliban official will be allowed at the Games, the International Olympic Committee declared on Thursday.
The IOC executive board (EB), after its meeting Thursday, confirmed that the national Olympic committee recognised by the IOC, as too its leadership (including the NOC president and NOC secretary general in exile), “continue to be the IOC’s only interlocutor for the preparation and participation of the Afghan NOC team in the Olympic Games Paris 2024. No representative of the de facto authorities/Taliban government will be accredited for these Games”.
“The clear idea is we want to get Afghan athletes and a gender-based team in Paris because of the demonstration that it gives to the world, at home in Afghanistan and also to the rest of the world,” Reuters quotes IOC spokesperson Mark Adams as having said at a media briefing.
IOC statement on Afghanistan
The EB (executive board) was informed that there will be a gender-equal team competing for Afghanistan at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. This is the result of the ongoing work that the IOC has been undertaking over the last few years, working closely with the NOC of Afghanistan recognised by the IOC, to ensure that female athletes can participate in the Games.
The team will be composed of six athletes:
three men competing in athletics, swimming and judo, and
three women competing in athletics and cycling.
The EB confirmed that the IOC-recognised NOC and its leadership (including the NOC President and NOC secretary general in exile) continue to be the IOC’s only interlocutor for the preparation and participation of the Afghan NOC team in the Olympic Games Paris 2024. No representative of the de facto authorities/Taliban government will be accredited for these Games.
Reuters adds
In February, a United Nations expert described the Taliban’s disrespect for the rights of women and girls as “unparalleled in the world”, and said their takeover had “exacerbated a high prevalence of gender-based violence against women and girls”.
The IOC suspended Afghanistan’s NOC in 1999, and the country was barred from the 2000 Sydney Games. Afghanistan was reinstated after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
