“LONDON: “Russian Athlete List Shrinks as Sports Chiefs Reject IOC Terms”, The list of Russian athletes heading to the Paris Olympics later this month has dwindled to just over a dozen, with several sports federation heads opting out due to what they deem humiliating restrictions imposed by the IOC.”
Athletes from Russia and Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, are barred from the Paris Games unless they compete as neutrals without their flags, anthems and emblems.
As of July 10, the Olympics website indicates only 16 Russian athletes are slated to compete in the Paris Games, scheduled from July 26 to August 11.
Russia takes pride in its record as a major sporting power at the Olympics. At the last summer Games in Tokyo in 2021, 335 Russian athletes competed, coming away with 71 medals including 20 golds.
Russians and Belarusian athletes have been forced to undergo an additional vetting process to ensure they do not support Russia’s war and have no connection to its military.
The Olympics kick off as tensions between Russia and the West are at their most acute in decades. Moscow has denounced the vetting process and other restrictions as discriminatory, accusing the IOC of engaging in a “conspiracy” to exclude its athletes.
Several Russian sports officials including in judo, wrestling and gymnastics have said their athletes will not go to Paris because of what they see as the unfair terms. Wrestler Veronika Chumikova said the decision to refuse the IOC’s invitation was her own, not the federation’s.
“The conditions that were prescribed there – without the flag, without the anthem – were somehow unpatriotic,” Chumikova told Reuters in a WhatsApp message.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that each athlete could decide individually whether to compete.
