Limited Russian presence in Paris `a victory' for Ukraine

The head of Ukraine's Olympic delegation touted the limited numbers of Russian athletes at the Paris Olympics — who must compete as neutrals — as war between the two countries grinds on for a third year.

Vadym Guttsait said Ukraine began the effort to reduce the number of Russian and Belarusian athletes after the Kremlin's forces invaded Ukraine in 2022 and have kept pressing it nearly until the start of the Games in Paris. Belarus is a key ally of Moscow's.

“During the war, they have no place in the international world,” Guttsait said. “Because every day our people — women and children — are killed. Every day they bomb us, and the missiles are flying over our country.”

Only 15 Russian athletes are competing in the Games and they won't officially be representing Russia. It and neighbouring Belarus were banned from sending national teams because of the war in Ukraine, so athletes approved to compete from those countries will do so under neutral status, including tennis star Daniil Medvedev, who won the U.S. Open in 2021.

“It's nothing,” Guttsait said about Russia's presence at the 2024 Olympics. “It's already a victory.”

In Russia, the Olympics are shown in a negative light or not at all in the media. Newspapers' main approach has been to play up the negative, writing about crime in Paris and the inconvenience of barricades placed throughout the city. Russia's state TV channels aren't broadcasting any of the events.

Russia has refused to send athletes in some sports, including wrestling and judo. The Russian wrestling federation objected to the International Olympic Committee's choice of which wrestlers to invite, saying the bouts would be incomplete without Russian athletes.

Russian athletes' showing in Paris a big change from the Tokyo Games held in 2021, where Russia had more than 300 athletes participating under the rebranded team name ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) because of a doping scandal. They won 71 medals.

For the Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee set specific criteria for Russian athletes to qualify, including whether they publicly supported Russia's war.

The war has also affected the Olympic participation of Ukraine. The country is represented by its smallest delegation in the history of the Summer Games — 140 athletes in 26 sports.