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This content was published on June 27, 2024 – 22:42
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has now allowed 22 Russians and 17 Belarusians to participate under a neutral flag at the Paris Games (July 26-August 11), according to a second list extended on Thursday to include tennis, shooting and rowing.
The IOC had published on June 15 a first list limited to four disciplines (wrestling, weightlifting, cycling and trampoline) and said it had recorded the first withdrawals, of two Russians – one of them the cyclist Alexandr Vlasov – and five Belarusians.
So far, 18 athletes from both countries have confirmed their presence – three cyclists, three trampoline specialists, two weightlifters and ten wrestlers – at the event by accepting the invitation. Two rowers and two fencers, all of them Belarusian, have yet to communicate their decision.
The same suspense is produced in tennis, where the Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, world number 5 and 6, have been invited, while in the women’s category the Belarusians Aryna Sabalenka (3rd) and Victoria Azarenka (16th) and the Russians Daria Kasatkina (14th) and Liudmila Samsonova (15th) have been invited.
To be invited to the Games, the “neutral individual athletes” have had to overcome the obstacle of classifications and double control, by international federations and by the IOC, to prove their lack of active support for the war in Ukraine and of ties with his country’s army.
The Olympic body has yet to update its list as the final results of the qualification phases come in.
There will be no Russians or Belarusians in athletics since the International Federation (World Athletics) remained firm in its position of total exclusion of representatives of these two nationalities.
Other sports, such as swimming, allowed their reintegration so late that their presence is in serious doubt.
The response of the Russian and Belarusian sports organisations remains to be seen. Moscow has given up on boycotting the Paris Games, but all its gymnasts have decided not to participate, while the rowing and judo federations, on the other hand, are in favour of sending athletes to the French capital.
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2024-06-27 21:29:31
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