MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has granted its approval for Russian tennis player Yelena Vesnina to play at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in France, the player said on Tuesday.
"I have received confirmation from the IOC via email," Vesnina told a TASS correspondent.
Last week, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said in a statement that it had approved the list of tennis players cleared to play at the 2024 Olympics and it included seven Russian athletes.
According to the ITF’s statement, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, Roman Safiullin, Pavel Kotov, Yekaterina Alexandrova, Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnider were cleared to participate in the singles event at the Summer Olympics in France.
Russia’s Yelena Vesnina was allowed to play in the doubles’ competition where she will be paired with her teammate Alexandrova. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not grant the go-ahead for Vesnina’s participation in the tournament until today.
Vesnina, 37, won the gold in women’s doubles in 2016 and the silver at the 2020 Games in mixed doubles. In her doubles career, she has won the 2013 French Open, 2014 US Open and 2017 Wimbledon. Playing in mixed doubles, Vesnina also won the 2016 Australian Open.
As part of the national women’s tennis team she won the 2007, 2008 Federation Cups (currently known as Billie Jean King Cup).
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 (IOC) 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.