The IOC has released the final list of Russians who have been admitted to the Olympics in Paris. A total of 15 people. The figure turned out to be ten times less than expected by our sports authorities last year.
The IOC is scared of champions? «We understand that team sports will not be able to participate, a statistical analysis was conducted and the number was determined — 180 athletes, — said the then Minister of Sports of Russia Oleg Matytsin in September 2023. — But this is the maximum number. Although the situation is changing every day, but it is probably not changing for the better.»
Frankly speaking, it was hard to believe in such a representative delegation even at that time. After all, the IOC, until December 2023, only hinted that it would give the go-ahead for Russians to participate in the Paris Games in a neutral status. And the time required to pass the Olympic selection was running out irrevocably. Well, at that moment there was still no understanding of how the decision itself would be formulated. When the department of Thomas Bach announced the criteria that every neutral athlete had to meet — including the absence of affiliation with CSKA, Dynamo or the Russian National Guard, it became clear that it would be a great success if at least fifty Russians made it to Paris.
In principle, this number did not look like a utopia back in the spring of this year. About three dozen licenses were taken away by representatives of wrestling, judo and taekwondo. It was clear that the Russians would have to form a full squad — eight people — at the Games in the singles tennis tournament. Plus one or two players in doubles. Well, you could count on a dozen more athletes in other sports. These estimates were consistent with the estimates of the IOC, which expected to see the maximum delegation of Russian athletes in a neutral status of 55 people.
However, then in Lausanne they decided that such representation of Russians at the Games was too much. The very first published list of our athletes admitted to the Olympics was shocking. It did not include a single representative of taekwondo, although Russians won four Olympic quotas in this sport. Also, only ten Russian wrestlers were admitted to the Olympic Games, although 16 licenses were won. And many leaders were not among them — for example, Zaurbek Sidakov, Zaur Uguev, Musa Yevloyev, and Abdulrashid Sadulayev was eliminated by the IOC at the qualification stage.
At that moment, however, the President of the Russian Wrestling Federation, Mikhail Mamiashvili, still admitted that Russian wrestlers would go to Paris even with a weakened squad. But soon the IOC published a list of Russian judokas admitted to the Games — and there were only four people on it, among whom there was not a single leader. Then the Russian Judo Federation announced that its athletes would not go to the Olympics at all. And soon Mamiashvili announced the same decision. True, one judoka and one wrestler from Russia — namely Makhmadbek Makhmadbekov and Shamil Mamedov — still wanted to go to the Games even after a collective refusal. But the first soon abandoned this intention without any explanation, and the second, as it was announced, was injured.
Will they win medals in trampoline and tennis? As a result, the sport with the widest Russian representation at the Olympics was tennis — although not everyone who was originally planned to be sent to Paris was allowed here. Daniil Medvedev, Roman Safiullin, Pavel Kotov, Mirra Andreeva, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Diana Schneider will play on the courts of the Roland Garros stadium — this is in singles. The duets Medvedev/Safiullin and Andreeva/Schneider will perform in the doubles, and Alexandrova will be joined by the winner of the gold and silver Olympic awards, Elena Vesnina. This highly experienced athlete will become the most famous representative of Russia in Paris.
Three people will compete from Russia in the cycling highway — these are Tamara Dronova, Alena Ivanchenko and Gleb Syritsa — and in kayaking and canoeing, where Alexey Korovashkov, Zakhar Petrov and Olesya Romasenko qualified and were admitted to the Games. Russia will have one representative each at the Olympics in swimming and trampolining. These are, respectively, Evgeniy Somov and Angela Bladtseva.
It is clear that in the conditions of incredible pressure that our athletes will experience at the Olympics, each medal will be a huge success. But the Russians have a real chance of getting on the podium. First of all, in tennis: the Olympic tournament is not comparable in strength to either the Grand Slam stages or even the Masters due to restrictions on the number of players per country. If the draw is successful, Russian players have a chance to take medals in both singles and doubles — and even gold medals.
We will also compete for awards in rowing — after all, Korovashkov is a bronze medalist at the London Olympics, as well as a five-time world champion and eight-time European champion. Bladtsev may also become the heroine of the Games — this 18-year-old trampoline player won the World Cup last week.