PARIS, August 4. /TASS/. Russian tennis players Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider have grabbed silver medals in the women’s doubles competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in France.

The pair of Russian tennis players, who competed at the 2024 Olympics in Paris under a neutral status, was defeated by a pair from Italy - Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini - 6-2; 1-6; 7-10 in the final match of the Games.

Andreeva and Shnaider have become the first Russian athletes to win Olympic medals at the Paris Games.

Andreeva, 17, is currently ranked 23rd in the WTA (the Women's Tennis Association) Rankings. Earlier this year she reached the semifinals of the 2024 French Open. Last year, in Grand Slams she reached the 3rd round of the French Open, made it all the way to the 4th round at Wimbledon and then battled her way into Round 2 of the US Open. In 2023, the WTA named Andreeva the rookie of the year.

Shnaider is 20 years old and she is currently ranked 24th in the WTA Rankings. Shnaider has three WTA titles under her belt and she won all of them during this season. Earlier in the year, she managed to battle through to Round 3 of the 2024 Wimbledon.

 

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.