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Particular person Russian swimmers can be allowed to compete in worldwide occasions, together with the Paris Olympics, in the event that they meet a set of “strict standards” that embrace not speaking to the media, the game’s governing physique stated on Monday.
Key factors:
- World Aquatics stated just one Russian and Belarusian athlete can be allowed to enter in every swimming and diving occasion on the Paris 2024 Olympics
- Russia and Belarus can’t participate in any relays, creative swimming, synchronised diving, or water polo
- Swimmers and divers who present “discriminatory behaviour” towards their Russian and Belarusian opponents will face disciplinary motion
The World Aquatics governing physique revealed its standards on Monday for Russian and Belarusian athletes, coaches and officers to return to competitors as neutrals after being banned due to their international locations’ battle in Ukraine.
The standards observe the Worldwide Olympic Committee’s tips that solely particular person athletes from Russia and Belarus — no groups — might be allowed to compete in Paris, and that they need to not have proven any public assist for the battle.
World Aquatics stated just one Russian and Belarusian athlete can be allowed to enter in every swimming and diving occasion.
They can’t participate in any relays, creative swimming, synchronised diving, or water polo.
Russian swimmers gained 5 swimming medals on the Tokyo Video games: two golds, two silvers and a bronze — together with one silver within the males’s 4x200m freestyle relay.
Russian athletes additionally claimed gold within the duet and workforce creative swimming competitions, a bronze within the synchronised 10-metre platform diving competitors and got here fourth within the ladies’s water polo competitors.
World Aquatics has appointed a panel to vet athletes, coaches and officers to ensure they haven’t proven any assist for the battle — comparable to statements, social media posts or collaborating in pro-war demonstrations — because the invasion began in February 2022.
That would bar swimmer Evgeny Rylov, a two-time gold medallist on the Tokyo Olympics, who was suspended final yr for carrying a “Z” image at a pro-war rally in Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
World Aquatics stated the principles took impact on Monday although it’s unclear how lengthy vetting will take after athletes apply for impartial standing.
Particular person athletes nonetheless should qualify for the Olympics to be able to compete in Paris subsequent summer time. Foremost occasions on the swim calendar earlier than then embrace three World Cup meets in October in Berlin, Athens and Budapest and the 2024 aquatics world championships subsequent February in Doha, Qatar.
Russian and Belarusian flags and anthems won’t be allowed and permitted athletes and assist employees should put on all-white uniforms and tools, World Aquatics stated.
“They will even not be allowed to present any interviews to media throughout such competitions,” the world swim physique stated, additionally barring athletes from information conferences and post-race combined zones the place journalists can ask questions.
World Aquatics is the most recent Olympic sports activities physique to element its response to the Worldwide Olympic Committee’s recommendation to discover a approach for impartial Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to competitors.
The IOC initially urged sports activities to exclude Russia from world sports activities inside days of the battle beginning, however that recommendation modified in December regardless of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy urging a full exclusion of Russia.
Monitor and area’s World Athletics has taken the strongest stance in persevering with to ban Russians, whereas the nation’s athletes are unlikely to return in different Olympic sports activities till subsequent yr.
World Aquatics additionally put limits on how Russians and Belarusians can attempt to qualify for the primary competitions, together with present process 4 doping controls by recognised anti-doping companies within the yr previous to making use of for impartial standing.
Any qualifying time or efficiency additionally should be achieved at a contest held outdoors Russia and Belarus.
“Regardless of the challenges we face on the worldwide stage, we acknowledge our accountability to foster a aggressive, honest, and inclusive setting for each competitor,” World Aquatics president Husain al Musallam stated in a press release.
Swimmers and divers who present “discriminatory behaviour” towards their Russian and Belarusian opponents will face disciplinary motion, World Aquatics stated.
AP
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