The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has called on French President Emmanuel Macron to ban on Russian athletes from participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The ban was imposed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has resulted in Russian and Belarusian athletes being banned from international sports events such as racing, tennis, football, and the Olympics. The ban on Russian athletes from the Paris Olympics was opposed by the President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOCU) and several other National Olympic Committee (NOCs) leaders during an online call with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president. The NOCU called on the IOC not to lift the ban on Russian athletes from the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Real Research, an online survey app, launched a survey on the ban on Russian athletes from participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics to determine society’s stance on should Russian national athletes be banned from participating in the Paris Olympics and if it’s justifiable.

Highlights:

  • 49.45% strongly agreed with Zelenskyy’s ban on Russian athletes from the 2024 Paris Olympics
  • 10.47% stated a  negative effect of banning Russian national athletes from the Paris Olympics was discouraged athletes
  • 23.41% stated the reason was to show Russia the severity of the war and its impact on the world

A recent survey was conducted to gauge public opinion on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request for a ban on Russian athletes from the 2024 Paris Olympics. The results show that a majority of the respondents (75.88%) agree with Zelensky’s request, with 49.45% strongly agreeing and 26.43% somewhat agreeing. On the other hand, 17.6% of the respondents either somewhat disagreed (12.16%) or strongly disagreed (5.44%) with the request.

The remaining 6.52% of the respondents were unsure. These results indicate that most of the surveyed population supports the ban on Russian athletes from participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The-majority-agreed-with-Zelenskyys-request
Figure 1: The majority agreed with Zelenskyy’s request.

Out of the 75.88% who agreed with the ban, 13.07% believe that the ban is necessary because Russian athletes took part in the war in Ukraine. Additionally, 12.97% of the respondents believe that the ban is necessary to impose sanctions against Russia, while another 12.97% think that it is to discourage Russia’s prolonged continuation of the war. A majority of the respondents (46.02%) agreed that the ban is necessary to show Russia the severity of the war and its impact on the world and to discontinue the war (22.61%).

Reasons-for-why-Russian-athletes-should-not-be-banned-from-olympics
Figure 2: Reasons for why Russian athletes should not be banned from the Olympics

Furthermore, figure 2 above shows that the respondents who disagreed with the request stated that the athletes should not be disadvantaged because of the decisions of their government (24.13), to prevent the politicization of sports (18.82%), to prevent harming the spirit of the Olympics (18.1%), because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already punished Russian athletes, such as not being able to use their national flag and national anthem (15.16%) and to demonstrate fairness and non-discrimination (8.58).

Russian-Ukrainian War

When respondents were asked if they think the ban on Russian athletes from the 2024 Paris Olympics would likely cause a discontinuation of the war, the majority (30.88%) revealed that it is highly likely, followed by 29.33% who feel it is somewhat likely, while 19.65% said somewhat unlikely, 11.86% said highly unlikely, and 8.28% remained unsure.

The next question asked the respondents if banning Russian athletes from the upcoming Olympics event was the appropriate response for political matters; results show that 66.41% of the respondents believed the ban was appropriate, while 33.59% believed it was not. This suggests that the majority of the surveyed population supports the ban as a way to address political issues.

Negative-effects-of-banning-Russian-athletes-from-the-Paris-Olympic
Figure 3: Negative effects of banning Russian athletes from the Paris Olympics

Lastly, 10.47% of the respondents said demotivated Russian athletes as a negative effect of banning Russian athletes from the Paris Olympics. Followed by disruption to the spirit of the Olympics (9.3%), possible harm to the reputation of the Olympics (7.53%), dispirited Russian viewers and supporters (7.04%), dispirited Olympic viewers and spectators (5.21%), and disruption to the Olympic games (4.54).

Methodology

Survey TitleSurvey on the Ban on Russian Athletes From Participating in the Paris Olympics
DurationJanuary 28, 2023– February 04, 2023
Number of Participants10,000
DemographicsMales and females, aged 21 to 99
Participating Countries Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia,… Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, China (Hong Kong) China (Macao), China (Taiwan), Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greanada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Maldives, Maluritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar [Burma], Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.