The Russian Judo Federation has decided not to send a representative to the Paris Olympics, denouncing the “humiliating conditions” set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which on Friday had authorized only four Russian judokas out of 14 categories. Reacting to the new list of Russian or Belarusian athletes authorized to participate in the Games published by the IOC on Friday evening, the Russian Judo Federation announced its decision to boycott the event, in a statement published during the night from Friday to Saturday.
“The Russian national judo team will not accept these humiliating conditions,” it said, believing that “such actions by the IOC undermine the credibility of the Olympic movement” and “destroy the status of the Olympic Games as the most important sporting event” in the world. “Of the 17 judokas who had obtained Olympic qualification, the IOC allowed only four of them to participate,” the Russian federation regretted. “Without Russian athletes, the judo competitions at the Games will be incomplete.”
If 17 Russian judokas had obtained enough points to qualify, only 14 would have been able to go to Paris: each nation can enter only one judoka per weight category (seven women’s categories, seven men’s). The IOC, which had initially banned athletes from both countries after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has since organized their gradual return, under a neutral banner and under certain conditions.
Double control
To be invited, the “neutral individual athletes” had to both overcome the obstacle of qualifications and a double check, by the international federations then the IOC, of their absence of active support for the war in Ukraine and of link with the army of their country.
While all 17 Russian judokas had passed the first test, many of them did not pass the second. Only Dali Liluashvili, Elis Startseva, Makhmadbek Makhbadbekov and Valerii Endovitskyi were named in the IOC list.
The leading figure of Russian judo, Inal Tasoev, was therefore not selected. In 2023, the heavyweight was beaten by Teddy Riner in the final of the Worlds, before finally being crowned co-world champion after an arbitration imbroglio. Tasoev and the other Russian heavyweight Tamerlan Bashaev, who beat Riner at the Tokyo Games, are part of a list drawn up by the Ukrainian government of Russian athletes who, according to it, supported the invasion of Ukraine.
2024-06-29 15:27:32
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