Ten Russian wrestlers invited to compete at the Paris Olympics as neutral athletes will not take part in the events after some of the top wrestlers were excluded from the invite list, the Russian Wrestling Federation announced on Saturday.
Two-time gold medalist Abdulrashid Sadulaev and 2023 world champion Zaurbek Sidakov were among the leading Russian wrestlers not named on the International Olympic Committee’s list of neutral athletes invited in June, the RWF said in a statement.
The RWF said its executive committee, national team technical staff and invited athletes had unanimously decided to refuse to participate in the Olympics after a meeting.
“We do not accept the unsportsmanlike selection principle that guided the International Olympic Committee when establishing the list of eligible athletes, the aim of which is to undermine the principle of unity of our team,” the RWF said.
The wrestlers would have been the largest group of Russians in any sport. The IOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Russian wrestling federation’s decision, whether it believed the wrestlers had been pressured to refuse and whether it would support any wrestler who wanted to compete against the federation’s wishes.
The federation said that as many as 16 Russians had qualified for the Paris Olympics, not 10, and that six of the invitees were “far from the status of leaders of the Russian team.” The federation listed the best Russian wrestlers who did not receive invitations and said the Olympic event would now be devalued.
“Any reasonable person understands that the status of the Olympic Games as the most important sporting event is in question, and wrestling competitions without Russian athletes will be incomplete, and the champions will not receive the satisfaction of winning the Olympic tournament,” the statement said.
The wrestlers’ withdrawal comes after Russian cyclist Aleksandr Vlasov also withdrew from the Olympics last month.
Russian and Belarusian athletes can only participate as neutral athletes – without flags, anthems and no role in the opening parade – because of the war in Ukraine. The IOC had previously said it would only extend invitations to Russian and Belarusian athletes who have no links to the security services or military and who have not publicly supported the war.
Last week, the Russian Judo Federation announced that its governing body had decided not to send athletes to Paris. Its statement did not specify what the athletes thought. The IOC told The Associated Press in a statement Tuesday that it was awaiting an “individual response” from judokas. The IOC website says one Russian judoka has accepted an invitation.
On Sunday, the IOC website listed 23 Russian athletes in seven sports who it said had accepted invitations to the Paris Olympics, including wrestlers. 2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev is among six tennis players the IOC said had accepted.
The Paris Olympics will run from July 26 to August 11, with the wrestling competition beginning on August 5.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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