Moscow, July 11. /TASS/. The International Cycling Union (UCI) has decided to allow 18 athletes from Russia and 14 more representing Belarus to participate under a neutral status in international tournaments, according to UCI documents obtained by TASS on Tuesday.

As of July 11, the neutral status was granted to Russian racers: Gleb Syritsa, Alexei Medvedev, Daria Yermolova, Tamara Dronova, Alyona Ivanchenko, Daniil Kazakov, Vlas Shichkin, Daria Dyatlova, Sergey Malnev, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Ilya Savekin, Ilya Shchegolkov, Ivan Smirnov, Daniil Zarakovsky, Ivan Seledkov, Mark Kryuchkov, Valeria Lyubimova and Yegor Igoshev.

UCI’s press office announced in May a decision to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus participating in international tournaments.

The UCI said in particular in its statement to "authorize, under strict conditions, the participation of athletes of Russian and Belarusian sporting nationality in events on the UCI International Calendar, including UCI World Cup and UCI Nations Cup events and UCI World Championships, as 'neutral individual athletes,' without them having any involvement or association with the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus, their National Federation or National Olympic Committee."

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.

On March 1, 2022, the International Cycling Union (UCI) suspended athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in the federation’s tournaments.

However, 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.