Russian gymnasts will not be able to compete at the Olympics in Paris

At the Summer Olympics in Paris, Russian athletes will definitely not perform in one of the most visible and most successful events of the program for them. None of the domestic representatives of artistic gymnastics will be able to score the number of qualifying points required to receive the Olympic quota due to missing the qualifying tournaments. True, it turned out that they deliberately refused to perform in them, and, consequently, at the Olympics itself, not wanting to receive neutral status while being tested for compliance with the criteria of the International Federation of Artistic Gymnastics (FIG).

I drew attention to the fact that Russian representatives of artistic gymnastics have lost their theoretical chances of qualifying for the Olympics opening on July 26 in Paris TASS. The International Gymnastics Federation allowed them to participate in its competitions, abandoning the “isolation regime”, last year, but only in January of this year, after a significant segment of the Olympic selection had already been left behind. Russians could get tickets to Paris only if they performed successfully at the World Cup stages, taking place from February to April. License holders will be determined by the best results shown in three out of four.

Meanwhile, Russian gymnasts previously missed the World Cup stages in Cairo and Cottbus, Germany. On March 7, the third qualifying stage started in Baku, and they were not among its participants either. Missing three out of four stages deprived the Russians of the opportunity to qualify for a sufficient number of qualifying points to travel to Paris, regardless of the results of the final stage: it will take place in April in Doha.

Thus, Russian athletes will definitely not be able to compete in France in one of the most visible and most successful events of the Olympic program for them.

Tokyo hosted the previous Summer Olympics in 2021. And in Japan, the Russian team shone, winning two very prestigious gold medals – for victories in both the men’s and women’s team all-around. In addition, she had two silvers and four bronzes in individual competitions. After the Tokyo Olympics, the team guarded most of the leaders.

At the same time, the President of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation Vasily Titov clarified “RIA News”that all the team’s athletes made the decision not to participate in the qualifying competition “consciously” because “no one wanted to receive neutral status.”

Its acquisition from the FIG, as from other federations, is subject to the fulfillment of a number of criteria. The key one is the refusal of “active” support for a special military operation and the actions of the Russian authorities, including the lack of ties with the armed forces of the Russian Federation and “national security” agencies.

FIG managed to show that its interpretation of such criteria is unlikely to be soft, back in 2022. Some time after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Russian gymnasts, while waiting for the “isolation” sanctions to come into force, still performed at international competitions. And during the award ceremony for the winners of the World Cup in Doha, the famous athlete Ivan Kulyak showed the public a sticker with the letter Z on his uniform. FIG promptly suspended him for a year for this.

Alexey Dospehov