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Will Russia be at Paris Olympics? These athletes will compete as neutrals

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Will Russia be at Paris Olympics? These athletes will compete as neutrals

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Once again, Russia is technically banned from appearing at the Olympic Games.

Yet once again, Russian athletes will compete under a different name − a handful of them, at least.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, which begin this week, 15 athletes from Russia − and 18 from neighboring Belarus − are slated to compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes,” or AINs for short, according to the most recent statistics released by the International Olympic Committee on Saturday. The AIN classification means that Russian and Belarusian flags, national anthems and uniforms will be absent from the Paris Games.

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Though Russia’s previous ban was for its state-sponsored doping efforts, this punishment was levied by the International Olympic Committee following its invasion of Ukraine. And it led to a complicated, multi-layered process that would allow for the involvement of some − but not all − Russians who qualified for Paris.

Which Russian athletes will be competing in Paris in which sports, and why:

How could Russian athletes qualify for the Paris Olympics?

In short, the IOC first asked the international federation in each sport to decide whether to permit Russian athletes to compete in their events. Some federations opted for a blanket ban. Others invited Russian (and Belarusian) athletes to continue to compete.

Then, in sports where those athletes were allowed to pursue Olympic qualification, the IOC created a panel to review the social media posts and activity of each athlete. Any athletes with ties to the Russian military or those who were found to have shown public support for the war in Ukraine were excluded.

Will Russia compete in team sports at the Paris Olympics?

No, Russia is totally excluded from team events in all 32 sports at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This is probably most notable in fencing and gymnastics, where athletes representing “the Russian Olympic Committee” won multiple team golds at the previous Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021.

Will Russian athletes compete in gymnastics, swimming or track and field?

There will be almost no Russian presence in these three sports, which are generally considered to be among the most popular at the Summer Olympics. The only exceptions are Anzhela Bladtceva in women’s trampoline and swimmer Evgenii Somov, who is slated to compete in the men’s 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter breaststroke.

Which Russian athletes will compete at the Paris Olympics?

The full list released by the IOC, as of Saturday:

  • Canoe/kayak (3): Aleksei Korovashkov, Zakhar Petrov and Olesia Romasenko
  • Cycling – road (3): Tamara Dronova, Alena Ivanchenko and Gleb Syritsa
  • Gymnastics – trampoline (1): Anzhela Bladtceva
  • Swimming (1): Evgenii Somov
  • Tennis (7): Ekaterina Aleksandrova, Mirra Andreeva, Pavel Kotov, Daniil Medvedev, Roman Safiullin, Diana Shnaider and Elena Vesnina

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.

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