Russia’s team for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France, consists of just 15 people — a massive fall from the 330 athletes Russia sent to the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games, thanks to the international fallout from Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
International Olympic Committee sports director Kit McConnell said on Monday that only 15 athletes with Russian passports have registered for the Paris Games and they will only compete in ten events. The sizable Russian contingent at the 2021 Tokyo Games competed in more than 30 events and won 71 medals.
McConnell added that there was still time for more Russian athletes to register, but it seems unlikely that the final size of the Russian contingent would increase dramatically.
Russian officials have complained about the conditions set for their participation in the Paris Games, including bans on flying the Russian flag or playing the national anthem.
The IOC also banned any Russian athlete found to be “actively supporting” the invasion of Ukraine or serving in the Russian military.
Various Russian sports federations publicly stated they would not participate under those conditions. The Russian weightlifting federation, for example, cited the “unsportsmanlike selection principle” of its charter to cancel nine Olympic invitations that were initially accepted by its athletes. Russia’s judo federation denounced the conditions set for participation as “humiliating” and rejected four invitations.
Russian state television networks announced last week that they will not broadcast the Olympics due to the conditions imposed on Russian athletes. The last time Russia blacked out the Olympics was during Moscow’s 1984 boycott of the Los Angeles Games.
Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti complained on Monday that French officials have refused to accredit the five sports correspondents it wanted to send to the Paris Games. RIA Novosti claimed no reason was given for the denials.
French Acting Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said threats of terrorism, espionage, and cybercrime were among the reasons for refusing thousands of accreditation requests.
Russia’s vassal state Belarus has also dramatically reduced its Olympic representation, from 101 athletes at the Tokyo Games to 17 in Paris.
Russian and Belarusian athletes will be required to compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes” (or AIN, using its French acronym). Russia actually participated in several Olympic Games under comparable designations before the invasion of Ukraine, due to a string of doping scandals that turned Russia into a sports pariah. Russia’s flag has not been raised at the Olympics, nor has its anthem been heard, since the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The AIN designation imposed for the Paris Games is actually a bit more severe than the neutral identities contrived for the past few Olympics because at least in those competitions the Russian teams were allowed to appear together under contrived sports federation names that included the word “Russia.”
AIN athletes will be extensively vetted, required to compete as individuals instead of teams, and barred from a few events. They will all compete under a generic teal-and-white flag, and cannot wear Russian or Belarusian colors on their uniforms. A generic anthem will be played if they win any medals.
The highest-profile Russian athlete to accept the tightly constrained Paris Olympic invitation is tennis star Daniil Medvedev, currently ranked Number 5 in the world.
