Russia decides not to send judoka to Olympics

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Friday that it would authorize two Belarusian athletes and six Russian athletes, including four judokas, to participate in the Olympic Games. But the Russian Judo Federation immediately decided not to send athletes.

The 2024 Olympic Games will be held without Russian judoka, despite authorizations granted by the IOC. In a press release published Friday June 28, the Russian judo federation announced that it would not send any athletes to Paris to protest against the quotas for selected judokas, authorized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under a neutral banner.

In a new expanded list of athletes reinstated in Olympic competitions released Friday, the IOC said four Russian judokas would be allowed to compete. However, there are 17 of them who have obtained their Olympic qualification. “In this situation, the Presidium of the Russian Judo Federation made a unanimous decision: the Russian national judo team will not accept humiliating conditions and will not participate in the Paris Games with the composition proposed by the heads of the International Olympic Committee.”explained the Russian Judo Federation, denouncing a decision “unsportsmanlike” and calling for “reform the IOC”.

Since Friday, two Russians and two Belarusians have also been authorized to participate in the Olympic canoeing event. In total, 50 athletes from these two countries have the possibility of competing at the Paris Olympics. For the time being, only 20 have confirmed their presence and eight have officially declined, according to the updated IOC list.

As a reminder, the IOC, which initially banned Russian and Belarusian athletes after Vladimir Putin’s army invaded Ukraine in February 2022, is organizing their gradual return, under a neutral banner and under certain conditions. 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.

The figurehead of Russian judo, Inal Tasoev, was thus not selected. In 2023, the heavyweight was beaten by Teddy Riner in the final of the World Championships, before finally being crowned co-world champion after an arbitration imbroglio.