Column: IOC talks tough on Russia — until Paris on horizon

FILE - Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, playing the role of High Priestess, lights the torch with the flame during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathinean stadium in Athens, Greece, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. Instead of arriving overland, the symbolic flame alighting the Paris 2024 Games will take to the seas from its birthplace in Greece, arriving aboard a three-masted tall ship in the French port of Marseille. Paris 2024 organizers announced the flame's journey Friday Feb.3, 2023 at City Hall in Marseille, a former Greek colony founded 2,600 years ago. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via a video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

FILE- Gene Sykes claps after City Council voted 12-0 to endorse documents at the heart of its plan to stage the Summer Olympics for the third time since 1932, in Los Angeles on Aug. 11, 2017. The new leader of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has reiterated the federation’s support for exploring a way for Russian athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics as neutrals. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Charles Michel address a media conference after the EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

FILE - A Russian flag is held above the Olympic Rings at Adler Arena Skating Center during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia on Feb. 18, 2014. Russia and its ally Belarus have been invited to compete at the Asian Games in the next step to qualify athletes for next year’s Paris Olympics. The arrangement has been brokered by the International Olympic Committee. The IOC indicated on Wednesday that it favours allowing Russians to compete at the 2024 Olympics as neutral athletes. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

Mayor of Marseille Benoit Payan, center, raises the Olympic flag with Head of Paris 2024 Olympics Tony Estanguet, center right, after a press conference at the Marseille City Hall, southern France, Friday, Feb. 3. 2023. Instead of arriving overland, the symbolic flame alighting the Paris 2024 Games will take to the seas from its birthplace in Greece, arriving aboard a three-masted tall ship in the French port of Marseille. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

FILE - Olena Kostevych and Bogdan Nikishin, of Ukraine, carry their country's flag during the opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on July 23, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. Ukraine has stepped up efforts to lobby international sports leaders against Russian participation in next year’s Paris Olympics as indications mount that the games could see the biggest boycott since the Cold War. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

FILE - A woman passes by the Olympic rings at the City Hall in Paris, on July 25, 2022. Latvia is threatening to boycott next year’s Paris Olympics if athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus are allowed to take part after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)