American Senator: Remove Iran from the 2024 Olympics
Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican representative from the state of Tennessee in the Senate, has accused Iran of what is called human rights violations and has called for Iran’s removal from these games.
The International Olympic Committee has a history of banning countries for political reasons. The most recent political action by this committee was banning Russia and Belarus from the Paris Olympics due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian athletes had previously been banned from competing under their country’s flag in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and the 2022 Qatar World Cup due to doping.
Last October, the International Olympic Committee announced that athletes from Russia and Belarus would only be allowed to participate individually and as neutrals in the 2024 Paris Olympics, without the right to use their countries’ names, flags, or anthems. Blackburn has called for the International Olympic Committee to treat athletes from the Islamic Republic of Iran in a similar manner.