Russians can qualify for Olympic spots in some sports

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Paris Olympics, and nearly a year-and-a-half since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, officials governing many of the sports on the 2024 program are still split on how to treat Russian athletes. Increasingly, various governing bodies are allowing them back into Olympic qualifying competitions as neutral competitors without national flags or anthems. Most sports initially barred Russians from competing soon after last year's full-scale invasion.

The International Olympic Committee strongly backs those moves even as the body itself says it hasn't decided if athletes from Russia and ally Belarus can compete at the Paris Games. However, the IOC has delayed action on the one sport whose qualification it runs in-house, boxing. Most of the sports which have allowed Russians to return also followed IOC advice on its preferred name — «individual neutral athletes» — and to keep barring those who are under contract with the military or who have supported the war publicly.

The IOC also recommends blocking Russia from team sports like soccer or basketball. Ukraine is opposed to any Russians competing. Since last year, Ukrainian athletes and national teams have been boycotting competitions which allow Russians back in, a policy enforced in April by a government decree.

Activists from Ukraine have been trawling Russian athletes' social media for pro-war posts that could disqualify them from competing. Here is a look at the situation for Russian and Ukrainian athletes in key sports on the Olympic program:Track and Field World Athletics excluded athletes from Russia and Belarus from competitions after the invasion of Ukraine. That remains in place «for the foreseeable future,» after a vote of the World Athletics council in March.