MOSCOW, March 4 Cyclist Pavel Sivakov changed sports citizenship from Russian to French , according to the website of the Ineos Grenadiers team. Sivakov received the right to race under the auspices of the International Cycling Union (UCI) under the French flag. «I have long wanted to become a French citizen and submitted a request to the UCI, but given what is happening now in Ukraine, «I wanted to speed up this process. I want to thank the UCI and the Ineos Grenadiers team for their support and help with this process. Being able to compete internationally as a French citizen makes me incredibly happy. It would be a dream to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics» for France, the team said they would fully support it,» Sivakov said. «I was born in Italy and moved to France when I was a year old. France is the place where I grew up and was educated where I fell in love with cycling. This is my home,” he added. On Tuesday, the UCI imposed a package of sanctions on Russian cycling due to the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine, including canceling the status of Russian teams, depriving international status of several cycling races planned in the country, and removing the Russian team from participation in international competitions, banned Russian symbols in competitions.Russian riders can only compete under the auspices of the UCI in a neutral status and provided that their team is not registered as Russian or Belarusian.In addition, the UCI allowed athletes with multiple citizenships to request a change in their sports citizenship without any restrictions.
