The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Friday that it would authorize two Belarusian athletes and six Russian athletes, including four judokas, to participate in the Olympic Games. But the Russian Judo Federation immediately decided not to send athletes.
France Télévisions – Sports Editorial
Published on 06/29/2024 1:15 p.m.
Reading time: 1 min The headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, in Lausanne (Switzerland). (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)
The 2024 Olympic Games will be held without Russian judoka, despite authorizations granted by the IOC. In A press release published Friday June 28, the Russian judo federation announced that it would not send any athletes to Paris to protest against the quotas for selected judokas, authorized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under a neutral banner.
In a new expanded list of athletes reinstated in Olympic competitions released Friday, the CIO had said that four Russian judokas would be allowed to compete. However, 17 have secured their Olympic qualification. “In this situation, the Presidium of the Russian Judo Federation made a unanimous decision: the Russian national judo team will not accept humiliating conditions and will not participate in the Paris Games with the composition proposed by the heads of the International Olympic Committee.”explained the Russian Judo Federation, denouncing a decision “antisportive” and calling for ““reform the IOC”.
Since Friday, two Russians and two Belarusians have also been allowed to participate in the Olympic canoe event. In total, 50 athletes from these two countries therefore have the opportunity to compete in the Paris Olympics. For now, only 20 have confirmed their presence and eight have officially declined, according to the IOC updated list.
As a reminder, the IOC, which had initially banned Russian and Belarusian athletes after Vladimir Putin’s army invaded Ukraine in February 2022, is organizing their gradual return, under a neutral banner and under certain conditions. To be invited, the “neutral individual athletes” had to overcome both the qualification hurdle and a double check, by the international federations and then the IOC, of their lack of active support for the war in Ukraine and of links with their country’s army.
The figurehead of Russian judo, Inal Tasoev, was thus not selected. In 2023, the heavyweight was beaten by Teddy Riner in the final of the World Championships, before finally being crowned co-world champion after an arbitration imbroglio.
2024-06-29 11:20:06
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