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[ad_1] PARIS: In 500 days on Tuesday, the 2024 Summer Olympics will burst into life in Paris as the teams float down the River Seine on barges in a unique opening ceremony. The Paris Olympics and Paralympics have a lot riding on them – they involve the return of full crowds of spectators to the world's greatest sporting spectacle after the Covid-blighted Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021 and the Winter Olympics in Beijing last year. On top of that, the spending on the Games is being scrutinised as never before – venues are focused on Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest area in France. And the buildup is being buffeted by the war in Ukraine and its ramifications for competitors from that country, Russia and its ally Belarus. Here are the key issues to be resolved before the Games open on July 26, 2024: The International Olympic Committee's suggestion that it wants to find a "pathway" for athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to take part as neutrals in Paris m

[ad_1] LAUSANNE: Olympic chiefs on Friday gave the green light to the  participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at next year's Paris Games as neutrals, outside of team events and as long as they did not actively support the war on Ukraine. The International Olympic Committee added that there were currently only eight athletes from Russia and three from Belarus who had qualified as neutral athletes. In comparison, more than 60 Ukrainian athletes have qualified for next year's Paris Olympics . The IOC's executive board "decided that Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs) who have qualified through the existing qualification systems of the International Federations (IFs) on the field of play will be declared eligible to compete at the Olympic Games Paris 2024". But only, it added, if they meet strict eligibility conditions. That includes the exclusion of "teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport". Also missing out will be &