President of the All-Russian Swimming Federation (RSF) Vladimir Salnikov said the Paris Olympics are “already a page turned” for Russian swimmers who will not participate in these Games.
Qualifications for the 2024 Games in pool swimming are still underway. In open water swimming, the Russians lost the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.
“As far as participating in the Olympic Games is concerned, nothing has changed for us. The existing conditions do not allow us to participate in the Games as they should have been. So it’s already a page turned. There are some irresistible things, based on sporting principles. We used to send people to international competitions based on the results of selecting the best. This is excluded from these criteria. And also the lack of symbolism and other factors that prevent our athletes from feeling equal to other participants.
The situation is different depending on the sport, but in some cases certain changes have been made in terms of conditions. For us, the Olympics remained outside our area of interest. We continue to prepare for the competitions on our calendar,” Salnikov told .
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced in December 2023 that it would allow Russian athletes who successfully qualified for the 2024 Olympics to have individual neutral status without a flag, anthem or other national symbol. The IOC also banned the participation of athletes associated with security forces or who have expressed support for the SVO.
The Paris Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to August 11.
Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
