Russian gymnasts give Paris 2024 Olympics red card
Russian gymnasts have decided to refuse to participate in the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 in protest against conditions set out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It was expected that they would not participate, considering their absence from the men's and Women's World Cup events that have been held since February, with the top two qualifying in each apparatus for the Games.
Russia already missed the chance to compete in the team competition in Paris after they were banned by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) during the qualifiers for the 2022 and 2023 World Championships.
Russia won both the men's and women's team finals at Tokyo 2020. The FIG lifted the ban in January this year to give the country's gymnasts one last chance at both the World Cup and the upcoming European Championships.
However, the athletes in question have not made any gesture of acceptance of the conditions set by the IOC to allow Russian athletes to participate in Paris. These include participating under a neutral flag, having no connection with the army or security forces, and not supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On the contrary, most of them belong to the Army club, CSKA Moscow, and the gymnasts of the men's team have made a point of aligning themselves with Vladimir Putin's regime in its aggression against Ukraine.
Nikita Nagornyi, the two-time Olympian, is believed to be the head of an Army youth organization. Along with other members of the Olympic champion team, Artur Dalaloyan, David Beliavskyi, and Denis Abliazin, he donated a drone for war purposes.
What's more, their federation was not going to make it easy for them. President Vasily Titov warned that anyone wanting to compete in Paris would need to fund themselves. In a centralized system, where the income of athletes depends on state bodies and the training center at Lago Redondo, near Moscow, no gymnast would risk leaving the herd.
This also extends to rhythmic gymnastics, another discipline that has been dominated by Russia. Its federation is chaired by Irina Viner, who is very close to Putin because of her marriage to tycoon Alisher Usmanov before their divorce, and it is claimed Viner would not allow her gymnasts to compete as neutrals under any circumstances.
