Cyclists Tamara Dronova, Alena Ivanchenko and Hleb Syritsa, kayakers Olesia Romasenko, Zakhar Petrov and Alexey Korovashkov, swimmer Yevgeny Somov, gymnast Angela Bladtseva and tennis players Yekaterina Aleksandrova, Mirra Andreeva, Diana Schnaider, Elena Vesnina, Daniil Medvedev, Roman Safiullin and Pavel Kotov – these are the 15 athletes With Russiawho will compete at the Olympic Games in Paris.
The aforementioned competitors will compete in neutral status, meaning without a flag or national anthem. This is because of that country's attack on Ukraine. Competitors from Russia also could not support the war and could not have ties to the army.
More Russians could have gone to Paris, but many of them refused to go to the French capital because of sanctions imposed by the International Olympic Committee. This included gymnasts, wrestlers, archers, fencers, wrestlers and judokas.
Instead of competing in the Olympic Games, most Russian athletes were supposed to compete in the Friendship Games, which were to be held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg from September 15 to 29. They were supposed to, but it is not known whether they will not be postponed until next year.
Russian talents may end up “in the dustbin of history”
The competitions that the Russians want to organize themselves may be the only opportunity for their athletes to compete with foreign competitors. playersIt is not known when the war in Ukraine will end, and therefore when athletes from Russia will be allowed to compete “normally” at the Games.
Concerns about this were expressed by former Soviet cyclist Vyacheslav Ekimov. “If the authorities of our country decided to ban travel to the games, none of our athletes would go and there would be no problem,” he said, as quoted by the portal sports.ru.
– On the other hand, the West would probably call it a boycott. And if that happened, they probably wouldn't want us at the 2028 Olympics either. Absence from two Olympics in a row would mean that a large part of our young talents would end up in the dustbin of history. There will be a generational change and no one will hear about our athletes – he added.
Olympic Games in Paris will last from Friday until August 11. The 2028 Games will be held in Los Angeles.