MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Russia’s national women’s handball team has lost any chance at competing in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in France, the International Handball Federation’s (IHF) press office told TASS on Friday.

The Russian team was not granted the so-called wild card permitting it to play at the 2023 IHF World Women's Handball Championship. The championship, which will be hosted in December by Denmark, Sweden and Norway, was the only chance for the Russian national women’s handball team to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

"According to the IOC [the International Olympic Committee], athletes with Russian or Belarus passports shall still not compete in team sports. As the Olympic Games are organized under the aegis of the IOC, your assumption is correct," the IHF said in response to a question from a TASS correspondent about whether Russia’s national women’s handball team might miss out on the 2024 Olympics.

The Russian national women’s handball team won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil and the silver medal at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Japan.

IOC sanctions against Russia

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.

In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.

On October 12, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.