IOC invites 8 Russian tennis players, 2 from Belarus to compete as neutrals at Paris Olympics
Posted 6/27/24
The IOC has invited eight top Russian tennis players plus Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus to compete as neutral athletes at the Paris Olympics. Some including Sabalenka already …
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.
Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
IOC invites 8 Russian tennis players, 2 from Belarus to compete as neutrals at Paris Olympics
Russia's Daniil Medvedev plays a shot against Australia's Alex De Minaur during their fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday, June 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Posted
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The IOC invited eight top Russian tennis players plus Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus on Thursday to compete as neutral athletes at the Paris Olympics — though some already declined the expected offer.
The Russian men invited to compete in the Olympic tournament at Roland Garros from July 27-Aug. 4 are No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, No. 6 Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Roman Safiullin.
The Russian women — Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova, Ekaterina Aleksandrova and Mirra Andreeva — are ranked currently from No. 14 to 24, respectively.
Sabalenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, already said she will skip the Olympics to avoid switching from Wimbledon on grass, back to clay at the Olympics, then to hard courts in August ahead of the U.S. Open. Rublev has reportedly cited health reasons to not go.
Tennis is the latest of the Olympic sports to have invitations to Paris confirmed as part of a vetting process to let some athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus compete with neutral status in individual sports during the invasion of Ukraine.
The International Olympic Committee is overseeing vetting to block athletes who expressed support for the Russian invasion or had ties to sports clubs linked to the military or state security services.
Russia and Belarus already are excluded from team sports at the Paris Games that open July 26.
The IOC announced this month that a first round of 14 Russians and 11 Belarusians were eligible and invited to Paris, including in cycling, weightlifting and wrestling. Some invitations have been declined.
On Thursday, two athletes in rowing and two in shooting from Belarus were invited to compete in Paris, though none in modern pentathlon. Russia did not have entry quota places in those three sports.
It is still unclear how many Russian athletes will compete at the Olympics. The IOC already barred those that do from taking part in the opening ceremony parade of athletes scheduled on boats sailing along the River Seine.
!role~Preview!mt~photo!fmt~JPEG%20Baseline)
