The International Gymnastics Federation allowed Russian athletes to participate in their competitions from next year

The list of sports structures that, following the March recommendations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), returned the Russians to the top competitions, has been replenished with a very noticeable and large structure. The decision to admit the Russians was made by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), which unites, among other things, two extremely important sports for Russia – artistic and rhythmic gymnastics. True, domestic athletes will be able to compete in its tournaments only from next year and, of course, subject to a number of strict conditions necessary to obtain a neutral status.

International Gymnastics Federation reported on the decision of its executive committee. He authorized the admission to competitions under the auspices of the FIG representatives of Russia and Belarus, suspended from them last year shortly after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. Russians and Belarusians are allowed as “individual” and “neutral” athletes, formally “without any connection” with their home states, national federations and national Olympic committees.

Commenting on the decision, FIG President Morinari Watanabe said that with it, the organization “ensures the rights of all athletes and sends a message that gymnastics is committed to peace.”

Thus, the gymnastics federation has added to the list of federations that have fulfilled the March recommendations of the International Olympic Committee. In the spring, he corrected his initial “isolation” position, which consisted in a total ban on the participation of Russians and Belarusians in top competitions. The IOC invited sports federations to ensure their return in a neutral status, including for participation in qualifying tournaments for the future summer Olympics: Paris will host it in 2024. True, the head sports structure has not yet formally allowed Russia and Belarus to participate in it.

New installations in the past almost four months not all followed federation. But the list of those who followed is already quite long. It also includes a number of federations that supervise sports that are important in terms of fighting for Olympic medals for Russia: fencing, wrestling, rowing, judo, taekwondo. Now it has been joined by a federation whose “share” may be higher than that of any other.

The fact is that the scope of FIG’s responsibility actually includes several species. Some of them, such as parkour, are rather marginal, but two are definitely extremely significant for Russia. We are talking about sports and rhythmic gymnastics, in which she occupied leading positions before isolation. At least the indicators of the previous Summer Olympics speak of its success: it took place in Tokyo in 2021. In the medal standings of the Olympic tournament in gymnastics, the Russian team was second after the Chinese, not losing to it in the total number of awards: there were eight of them. Two of them – for the victory in the team all-around, men’s and women’s – turned out to be gold. In rhythmic gymnastics, Russian women, who for a long time remained invulnerable to rivals, unexpectedly did not get the highest awards in Tokyo: they limited themselves silver in both individual and group all-around. Wherein defeat Dina Averina in a rivalry with the Israeli Lina Ashram, who retained the lead despite the loss of the subject, was perceived as one of the most controversial moments of that Olympics.

However, the decision to admit Russians and Belarusians is accompanied by reservations.

The first is that it is not being implemented right now, but only from January 1, 2024. That is, Russian athletes will miss the next world championships (in artistic gymnastics it will open at the end of September in Antwerp, in artistic gymnastics at the end of August in Valencia), and they are considered very valuable for the formation of the pre-Olympic alignment. In fact, to “test” their capabilities before the Paris Olympics, they will only have much less significant European championships in the spring.

The second caveat boils down to the need to meet the “strict” conditions necessary to obtain neutral status. They were identified in the March recommendations of the IOC. The key ones are the rejection 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 the “national security” agencies. Some Russian teams that have previously returned to top competitions – say, the taekwondo team – have already faced tough “filtering” of applications and elimination of stars from them who, in the opinion of the relevant federations, do not comply with the designated criteria, no matter how vague they may seem.

The FIG managed to show that its interpretations of such criteria are unlikely to be distinguished by softness, back in 2022. Some time after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Russian gymnasts, while waiting for the entry into force of “isolation” sanctions, still performed at international competitions. And during the awards 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. The FIG promptly disqualified him for this for a year.

Arnold Kabanov