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Why is Russia banned from Paris Olympics? Can Russian athletes compete?

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Why is Russia banned from Paris Olympics? Can Russian athletes compete?

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Nearly 200 countries will represented at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but Russia will not be one of them.

Russian athletes will not be allowed to compete under their country’s flag or anthem this summer following the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, marking the fourth consecutive Olympics that Russia will compete under another delegation at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

Instead, eligible Russian competitors will participate as Individual Neutral Athlete, or AINs for short.

“The Olympic Movement is united in its sense of fairness not to punish athletes for the decisions of their government if they are not actively participating in them,” the International Olympic Committee said in February 2022. “We are committed to fair competitions for everybody without any discrimination.”

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AINs won’t be allowed to take part in the parade of nations at the opening ceremony along the Seine River “since they are individual athletes,” the IOC announced in March, and any medals won by AINs won’t be included in the official medal count of nations.

Why is Russia banned from Olympics? What are AINs? Here’s what we know:

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Why is Russia banned from Olympics?

The IOC banned Russia from competition for invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, a “blatant violation” of the Olympic Truce, which begins seven days before the start of the Olympics and ends seven days after the conclusion of the Paralympics to ensure safe passage for all athletes. (The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing started Feb. 4 and the Paralympics ran through March 13.) Belarus faced the same penalty for its support of Russia.

The sanctions, which were placed against Russia and Belarus in February 2022, were confirmed by the Olympic Summit in December 2022 and remain in place today.

Russians competed under the name of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics while serving a two-year suspension for a state-sponsored doping program. But the ROC was suspended in October for breaching the Olympic Charter by violating “the territorial integrity of the (National Olympic Committee) of Ukraine.”

Can Russians compete at the 2024 Olympics?

Yes and no. Although teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport are not allowed to compete, Russian and Belarusian competitors can participate in individual sports as neutral athletes if they meet “strict eligibility conditions,” the IOC announced in December.

In order to be cleared to compete as an Individual Neutral Athlete, competitors cannot support the war or have been contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military, in addition to meeting all anti-doping requirements. The Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel, which was formed by the IOC in March, determined each athlete’s eligibility.

What will Russians be called at the 2024 Olympics?

Individually cleared athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport will compete as Individual Neutral Athletes, or AINs, an acronym for the French translation, Athlètes Individuels Neutres.

You will not see Russia’s flag or hear the country’s national anthem during the Olympics. “No flag, anthem, colours or any other identifications whatsoever of Russia or Belarus will be displayed at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in any official venue or any official function,” according to the IOC. Instead, AINs will compete under a teal flag inscribed with its acronym and an anthem with no lyrics will be used at medal ceremonies.

How many Individual Neutral Athletes will compete at the 2024 Olympics?

As of July 9, 36 individual Russian athletes have been invited to participate at the 2024 Olympics in Paris across seven sports, including cycling, gymnastics, wrestling, tennis, canoe, judo and swimming. Only 16 of those Russian athletes have accepted the invitation to compete as an AINs. In comparison, the Russian delegation sent 335 athletes to Tokyo in 2021, while Belarus sent 104.

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