Have the cards been completely reshuffled for this first Olympiad since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022? If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has authorized Russian and Belarusian athletes for four months to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (from July 26 to August 11), they will be able to participate on the condition of competing under a neutral banner, and they did not actively support the Russian offensive in Ukraine. All this while having overcome the hurdle of qualifying, knowing that many may have been deprived of it because they were banned from most international competitions.
This is why in an interview with Daily Telegraph last month, IOC Vice-President John Coates announced: “There may not be more than 40 Russian athletes” at the Paris 2024 Olympics. And this, specifying that Russia, like Belarus, will definitely not be able to take part in team sports.
Still in the Top 5 since the 1984 boycott
More generally, we are heading towards the presence in three months of 36 Russians and 22 Belarusians, light years away from the proportion in Japan, with 335 Russians and 104 Belarusians. It’s simple, Russia, which would compete under a neutral flag at the 2021 Olympics due to its suspension for a doping scandal, had obtained approximately twice as many medals (71, including 20 gold) than it will have. athletes in Paris this summer.
Since its boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, the country has systematically been part of the Top 5 of the medal-winning nations in the following nine Olympics, and the list of disciplines in which Russia in principle occupies a major role is long, from wrestling to wrestling. athletics, including gymnastics, fencing and even swimming.
Let’s take a concrete example. Could the French wrestling team, which dreams of regaining its glory of Beijing 2008 (3 medals, compared to none in 2021), for example take advantage of the probable absence of Uguyev, Sidakov and Sadulaev, all gold at Toykyo?
“Knowing that great Russian and Belarusian champions are blacklisted changes things a little,” recognizes Lionel Lacaze, president of the French Wrestling Federation. But the level is so high between the Americans, Iran and Japan that we are not going to start making projections based on their absence. » Three years after the Russian men’s-women’s team double in Tokyo, the gymnastics competition will inevitably be redesigned in Paris. According to the FFGym, the observation is even more supported for rhythmic gymnastics.
“It will really be more open in Paris” for the GR
“On the one hand, it’s a real shame not to be able to find the best Russian and Belarusian gymnasts, starting with Alina Harnasko (Belarus), who was third at the 2021 Olympics, points out Géraldine Miche, director of high level rhythmic gymnastics. tricolor. But that’s how it is, and it’s created great emulation in all the major competitions for two years. During this cycle, we were able to see German, Bulgarian, Israeli and Italian athletes emerge. It will really be more open in Paris and that could be a plus for our discipline. We have been criticized so often that we always see the same people winning…”
So much so that after its encouraging 7th place in the group competition of the 2023 world championships in Valencia, the French rhythmic gymnastics team is aiming for a shot at these Games at home.
One of the most spectacular media episodes concerning this thorny issue of Russian and Belarusian athletes took place last December, with swimmer Kliment Kolesnikov, double Olympic medalist in Tokyo, and who is now dreaming of gold. “It would be unreal to go to the Olympics in these unacceptable conditions, then explained the 23-year-old Russian, world record holder in the 50m backstroke. The other guys are participating, they’re competing as if nothing happened, and we won’t be allowed to have a delegation, a flag or the anthem. »
“These are not things we can control”
In addition to the conditions given at the start of the article, the IOC requires that athletes applying for the Games not be linked to the Russian or Belarusian army, or to national security agencies. So many rules that Evgeny Rylov (27 years old), the other star swimmer of the Russian selection, Olympic champion in the 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke in Tokyo, does not accept either. How closely do swimmers around the world follow extra-sporting news about Kolesnikov, Rylov and others during their preparation for Paris 2024?
OUR FILE ON THE PARIS 2024 Olympic Games
“These are not things that we can control, and their presence or not will not change the performance as such of a swimmer,” indicates Nicolas Castel, one of the coaches of the essential Léon Marchand. The Russians no longer participate in major competitions, so we have forgotten them a little. We follow their championship from afar, which takes place twice a year. Even if they will not be there, we know that there are always athletes who were not really expected at the Games and who reveal themselves. This is why, in my opinion, the right mental approach before the Olympics is to focus on what we can control. » And clearly, the possible evolution of the rules regarding the “eligibility” of Russian and Belarusian athletes is not one of them.