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Some 180 Russian athletes may take part in 2024 Olympics — Sports Minister Matytsin

The Russian sports minister stated that Russia would not be not be participating in eight team competitions at the 2024 Olympics Games including "basketball, volleyball, football, handball, field hockey," and other team events

ST. PETERSBURG, May 2. /TASS/. Some 180 Russian athletes may participate in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in case they are greenlighted to take part in the major international sports competition and successfully clear the qualifiers, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said on Tuesday.

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"If our athletes successfully clear the qualifying tournaments and the [participation] requirements] are not significantly amended, the maximum number of Russia’s participants in the [2024] Olympic Games is expected to stand at about 180 athletes," Matytsin said at a government meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"In this regard, we consider it necessary to continue dialogue with international sports organizations and to defend our interests with the help of our friendly countries," the sports minister added.

"In all, the international sports federations in charge of 12 Olympic and 13 non-Olympic sports supported the admission of Russian athletes to international competitions," Matytsin said. "However, nine sports organizations have not yet come up with clear criteria [to allow Russian athletes compete at international level]."

The Russian sports minister stated that Russia would not be not be participating in eight team competitions at the 2024 Olympics Games including "basketball, volleyball, football, handball, field hockey," and other team events.

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

At its session on January 25, 2023, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Athletes from the countries in question should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status.

After Tokyo hosted the Olympic flame at the Summer Games in 2020, it is now slated to travel to Paris for the Summer Games in 2024, and then on to Los Angeles in 2028. In 2021, at the 138th session of the IOC in Tokyo, Brisbane, Australia, was selected to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games.

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