40 Russians and Belarusians now invited by the IOC to participate in the Games under neutral banner

The International Olympic Committee announced on Thursday that it had expanded the list of athletes authorized (23 Russians and 17 Belarusians) to compete in the Paris Olympic Games, from July 26 to August 11.

With less than a month to go until the opening of the Paris Olympic Games (July 26 to August 11), Russian and Belarusian athletes continue to learn little by little about their selection. On Thursday, June 27, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published an expanded list of athletes authorized to compete under a neutral banner, including the names of 23 Russians and 17 Belarusians. Tennis, rowing and shooting are the three disciplines concerned by this expansion. On June 15, the IOC published an initial list of 25 athletes.

The IOC also indicated that two Russians, including cyclist Aleksandr Vlasov, and five Belarusians had declined the invitation. Conversely, 18 athletes have already confirmed their presence – three cyclists, three trampoline specialists, two weightlifters and ten wrestlers – while the two rowers and two shooters, all Belarusians, have yet to make their response known.

In tennis, the Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, respectively world numbers 5 and 6, were invited, as well as the Belarusians Aryna Sabalenka (number 3) and Victoria Azarenka (number 16) and the Russians Daria Kasatkina (number 14) and Liudmila Samsonova (number 15). Their answers are not yet known.

To be invited to the Games, “neutral individual athletes” had to overcome both the obstacle of qualifications and a double control, 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. The Olympic body will update its list again as the final qualifying results are revealed.

No track and field specialists will be part of it, as World Athletics has maintained a total exclusion of Russians and Belarusians, while some sports, such as swimming, have reinstated them so late that their presence is uncertain. Similarly, team events are excluded from the authorisation process.

On the side of Russian and Belarusian sports organizations, if Moscow has finally given up on boycotting the Paris Games, its gymnasts have all decided to refuse to participate, while the rowing and judo federations are, conversely, willing to send athletes, under neutral banner. At the 2020 Olympics, the Russian delegation included 330 athletes and 104 Belarusians showed up in Tokyo.