The International Olympic Committee has authorized six more Russians and two Belarusians to participate in the Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11), bringing their total number to 47, according to a third list expanded Friday to include judo and canoeing. The IOC, which had published a first list on June 15, before expanding it Thursday, indicates that two Russians and two Belarusians are invited in canoeing and four Russians in judo.
A gradual return
So far 20 of these 47 athletes have confirmed their presence, while many others have not yet made their response known, such as in tennis, where the Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, current world No. 5 and No. 6, have been invited, as well as, in the women’s event, the Russian Daria Kasatkina (No. 14) and the Belarusians Victoria Azarenka (No. 16) and Aryna Sabalenka (No. 3), the latter having already announced that she would not go. The Russian Liudmila Samsonova (No. 15) has declined the invitation.
The IOC, which initially banned athletes from the two countries after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has since organized their gradual return, under a neutral banner and under certain conditions. To be invited to the Games, “neutral individual athletes” had to overcome both the hurdle of qualifications 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 the army of their country.
The Olympic body must still update its list, as and when the final results of the qualifications come out: no athlete will be part of it since the World Athletics federation has maintained a total exclusion of Russians and Belarusians, while certain sports, like swimming, reintegrated them so late that their presence is uncertain.
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Last March, the IOC expected 36 Russians and 22 Belarusians to take part in the Paris Games. “according to the most likely scenario”, and respectively 55 and 28 « au maximum »a much more sparse presence than at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics: there were 330 Russians, while Belarus had qualified 104 athletes.
