LAUSANNE, Switzerland: Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh has said since the start of the war that all Russian and Belarusian athletes should be excluded from international events, including the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Speaking on Wednesday a short distance from International Olympic Committee headquarters, Mahuchikh did not understand why opinions changed there after it had been pro-exclusion last year.
“Thomas Bach said at the start of the war he supported us and stayed in a strong position,” Mahuchikh, speaking about the IOC president, told The Associated Press ahead of this week’s Diamond League meet in Lausanne. “But now it’s not changed in the situation in Ukraine. Why did they change?”
The IOC gave different advice this year as qualifying events for the Paris Olympics approached, and Bach criticized Ukraine’s government last week for helping to block athletes from competing in events that now allow Russians to take part.
Olympic sports bodies have been urged since March to allow neutral Russian athletes — those evaluated as not actively supporting the war, nor contracted to military or state security agencies — to compete in international events without their flag, anthem or national colors.
Excluding them on the basis of their passports alone was discrimination, the IOC has said, while also adding that sports where Russians and Belarusians competed have not had security incidents.
That is unacceptable to Mahuchikh, the Olympic bronze medalist from the Tokyo Games behind Russian rival Mariya Lasitskene and Australian jumper Nicola Olyslagers.
“It is very difficult to compete with people who destroyed your country. Really every day the Russians do missile attacks to all territories of Ukraine,” said the 21-year-old native of Dnipro who now lives and trains in Belgium. “I don’t know what (more) we should do because we talk about and showed what they do. But, of course, we have people who support us and who understand the whole situation that happened.
“We are one year before the Olympics. We will do everything possible that the Russians and Belarusians are not allowed to go to the Paris Olympics.”
In her own sport, Mahuchikh and other Ukrainians need not worry about competing against Russians or Belarusians because World Athletics has taken the strongest exclusion stance of all Olympic sports.
“I’m very thankful to Sebastian Coe because he has a strong position about this,” Mahuchikh said of the World Athletics president and British track great, who won the first of back-to-back 1,500-meter gold medals at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
IOC officials have said the Olympic body could take a decision “at the appropriate time” to exclude all Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from next year’s Paris Games.
Mahuchikh had a theory why the balance has shifted toward letting Russians compete.
“But we know that in the (International) Olympic Committee they have in the commissions Russian athletes and a lot of Russian people. And they have, of course, chosen this,” she said, without naming pole vault great Yelena Isinbayeva, who has been an IOC member elected by athletes since 2016.
Mahuchikh said she did not expect, and did not have time, to meet this week with IOC staff dedicated to working with athletes.
The IOC did not immediately respond to a question about whether officials had sought to meet Ukrainian athletes competing in Lausanne.
Mahuchikh and Olyslagers headline the women’s high jump on Thursday, which will take place as a standalone event in a downtown shopping area. The main Athletissima meet is scheduled for Friday at the storied Pontaise Stadium.
Ukrainian high jumper Mahuchikh insists Russians should be excluded from next year’s Paris Olympics
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Ukrainian high jumper Mahuchikh insists Russians should be excluded from next year’s Paris Olympics
- “Thomas Bach said at the start of the war he supported us and stayed in a strong position,” said Mahuchikh, speaking about the IOC president The IOC gave different advice this year as qualifying events for the Paris Olympics approached
- The IOC gave different advice this year as qualifying events for the Paris Olympics approached
Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia unveils 2026 International Jockeys’ Challenge
- Japan Cup hero Mickael Barzalona and defending champion Mohammed Aldaham among 14-strong lineup
RIYADH: Japan Cup hero Mickael Barzalona, newly appointed Irish Champion Dylan Browne McMonagle and last year’s winner Mohammed Aldaham have been unveiled by the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia as part of the 2026 Saudi Cup International Jockeys’ Challenge at King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Feb. 13.
Prince Bandar bin Khaled Al-Faisal, chairman of JCSA, said: “The Saudi Cup International Jockeys’ Challenge has always been a favorite part of Saudi Cup weekend for me.
“It is the only challenge in the world that includes equal numbers of men and women competing as individuals, and it has been gratifying to see so many winners from different parts of the world since its inception in 2020,” he said.
The seven women and seven men who will compete in the four-race series over the big weekend includes global representation and features leading UK riders Saffie Osborne and Hollie Doye, Marie Velon from France, Australia’s Angela Jones and the American-based Frenchman Flavien Prat and the US’s Forest Boyce.
Two of the men are locally based jockeys, with Panamanian-born Luis Morales, who has more than 600 winners to his name in Saudi Arabia alone, joining defending champion Aldaham in the lineup after he created history in 2025 by becoming the first Saudi jockey to triumph.
Barzalona will be aiming to carry through his remarkable run of form from 2025, a year in which he won the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, King George VI Stakes, England’s Champion Stakes and the Japan Cup on Calandgan (IRE) in addition to notable strikes in the French 1000 Guineas and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Joining Barzalona is 22-year-old Northern Irishman Dylan Browne McMonagle, who is a multiple Group 1 winner and was crowned Irish Champion Jockey last November.
Like Barzalona and Browne McMonagle, Flavien Prat will be making his first appearance in the IJC having established himself as a dominate force in American racing, where he won the 2019 Kentucky Derby aboard Country House and has multiple Breeders’ Cup wins to his name, including in the 2022 Classic on the brilliant and unbeaten Flightline (US).
Completing the men’s team is Keita Tosaki, one of Japan’s leading riders with more than 4,000 wins, with strikes on champions such as Real Impact (JPN) and Danon Decile (JPN), and rising British rider Billy Loughnane.
At the age of 17, Loughnane was crowned Champion Apprentice and just two years on is a Group 1 winner; on Dec. 31, 2025, he made modern history with the most number of wins in a calendar year with 223 victories.
Both Hollie Doyle and Saffie Osborne are previous participants, and Doyle will be making her third appearance, having starred in 2025 and 2021 when she also won the Neom Turf Cup for Irish mastermind Willie Mullins aboard True Self (IRE).
The Classic-winning rider has partnered multiple Group 1 winners and heads to Riyadh after a successful stint in Hong Kong through the latter part of 2025.
Osborne makes her return after appearing in 2024 and has broken new ground since then by partnering Heart of Honor (GB) in the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in America last year, and the duo have since dazzled with wins at Meydan in Dubai.
American Forest Boyce is a multiple graded stakes-winning jockey, one of Maryland’s most accomplished riders, and makes her first appearance in Riyadh.
With more than 1,000 victories and $40 million in earnings, Boyce will be joined by Australia’s Angela Jones, who has quickly risen through the ranks to become a consistent force in Queensland racing.
Since transitioning to senior status in 2023, Jones has recorded more than 450 career wins from more than 2,800 rides, and has partnered regularly with leading trainer Tony Gollan, forming one of Queensland’s most successful jockey-trainer combinations.
European women are strongly represented, with six‑time winner of the Cravache d’Or Feminine Marie Velon returning, along with debutants Nina Baltromei and Frida Valle‑Skar.
Baltromei is a German jockey who made history in 2025 as the first woman to win the Deutsches Derby.
Valle‑Skar is of Swedish origin and has built a strong career riding in France and internationally. She made her first race ride in 2017, rode her first winner the following year and has since amassed more than 230 wins from more than 2,800 rides.
Last year she also achieved an historic breakthrough when she partnered Matilda to victory in the German 2000 Guineas at Cologne. It was the first time in 54 years that a filly had won the race, and Valle‑Skar became the first female jockey to ride the winner of the Classic.
And Velon has more than 600 career victories, including major international successes. Her partnership with Iresine (FR) has been particularly notable, delivering victories in the Prix Foy (2023) and the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak (2022).
“The JCSA is proud to promote this event with its equal opportunities for men and women, and we are glad to echo this key message shared by Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 — which is a guiding light for all sport in Saudi Arabia,” Prince Bandar said.
“Last year we celebrated the first victory by a Saudi jockey and Mohammed Aldaham is back this year to defend his title, may he have the best of luck,” he said. “Jockeys are tremendous and inspiring athletes and I look forward to personally welcoming them all to King Abdulaziz Racecourse and the Saudi Cup.
“The best of luck to all participants,” he added.
