Svitolina calls for Russians to be banned from Olympics

By HANNA ARHIROVA
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian tennis player and Olympic bronze medalist Elina Svitolina has pushed for a total ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Paris Games in an interview with The Associated Press. Svitolina won her bronze medal in singles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She is visiting Ukraine for the first time since Russia invaded the country last year and she is the latest to call for a complete ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus because of the war. She says allowing Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutral athletes would be “the wrong message.”