This year the Olympics will see a much smaller number of Russian and Belarusian competitors. This is due to the new application system the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has placed on Russia and Belarus since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC required athletes from Russia and Belarus to apply to compete under the “Individual Neutral Athletes.”
To be approved to compete, the athletes must prove they are not connected to the Russian armed forces and do not condone the violence in Ukraine. If accepted, athletes will compete under a neutral flag and will be barred from wearing Russian colors in competition. If a gold medal is won, the competitor would receive the medal while a lyricless anthem played as the flag for the “Individual Neutral Athletes” flag is raised.
These athletes will essentially be competing without a country to back them.
For the past four years, Russia has been formally banned from the Olympic Games, after the IOC sanctioned the country for a state-run doping operation during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Since then, athletes have competed under the “Russian Olympic Committee.” However, there has been little difference between Russia and the ROC, with the ROC winning 71 medals with 20 golds at the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo.
The ROC had 335 athletes compete at Tokyo. This year in Paris, that number has plummeted down to just 15. The number of Belarusian competitors has dropped to 16.
Many Russian athletes decided not to apply when the restriction was placed. Even most of those that were accepted declined their invitations.
This shifts the odds of some of the winners in the Olympics, with the Russians considered to be favorites in sports such as boxing, wrestling, and gymnastics, the last of which beat out the U.S. for gold.
The Olympics begin this Friday, July 26 at 12:24 p.m. ET.
