MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Russia’s top tennis player Daniil Medvedev announced that he would be glad to play at the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris if given the chance, the player said in an interview with Russia’s Sport-Express daily on Friday.
"I didn't feel anything special when I arrived to play at the [2020] Olympics in Tokyo; it was just another tournament, where I had to play well and give my best," he said.
"However, when I was there I did feel that particular Olympic spirit and atmosphere, where all athletes playing different sports gathered, including famous ones," he continued. "That atmosphere left such a strong impression on me that I wanted to play not just well there, but really well."
"Unfortunately, it did not turn out [the way I wanted] and I was extremely disappointed. I was as disappointed as I had ever been before playing at other tournaments," Medvedev said.
"That is why I will be glad to play at the [2024] Olympics if I get such a chance. I’ll be doing my best, battling, trying to win and it will be very important to me," the Russian tennis player added.
Playing at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Medvedev failed to clear the quarterfinals round losing to Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in straight sets 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
Medvedev, 28, is currently fourth in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings. In 2022, the top Russian racket spent sixteen weeks as the number one player in the world. He is the 2021 US Open Champion and has 20 ATP tournament titles under his belt. He won five of these 20 titles in 2023. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup as well as the ATP Cup playing for the Russian national team.
Other Russian tennis players have also expressed their desire to compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, including Andrey Rublev (World No. 6) and Yekaterina Alexandrova (No. 15 on WTA).
"It would definitely be great to play at the Olympics because you only get that kind of opportunity once every four years," Alexandrova told Sport-Express earlier this week on Monday.
Rublev told the same Russian daily last week: "If God wills and everything stays the way it is, meaning that we are allowed to play, if I'm physically fit and good to go, it's very likely that I'll go [to Paris]."
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.
IOC’s regulations against Russia
The International Olympic Committee Executive Board convened for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20 and following the opening day it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in the Parade of Athletes and also exclude them from the 2024 Olympics overall medal standings.
The IOC, however, ruled that Russian athletes, cleared to participate in the upcoming Olympics, would not have to sign anything denouncing their country’s special military operation in Ukraine.
On October 12, 2023, 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.
The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.
The suspension means that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.
Russian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments
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.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022 to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations while also canceling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.
On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.
However, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.