The secret Russians at the Paris Olympics

livemint.com:

PARIS—As the Summer Games approached in Paris and the war raged on in Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee was confronted with a thorny political question: what to do about Russian athletes? Officially, Russia is banned from sending a team under its name and flag for the fourth consecutive Olympics. This time, however, the reason isn’t related to the country’s epic state-sponsored doping scandal, but rather Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. As it did during all of the previous bans since 2014, the IOC created a pathway for athletes from Russia—and in this case Belarus—to compete, but not under their country’s flag or colors.

All the Russian competitors had to do this time was submit applications as Individual Neutral Athletes and prove that they didn’t support the Russian invasion of Ukraine or have active ties to the military. Not many passed muster, however. By the Opening Ceremony on Friday, just 15 Russians will be entered into the Games as neutral athletes.

But it turns out that number is merely an illusion: There will, in fact, be dozens of Russian-born athletes in Paris. They will just be flying the flags of other countries, with many having recently acquired new nationalities to get around the numerous sanctions imposed on Russian sports. They made their life-changing decisions as soon as they could, long before the IOC formalized the status of independent athletes last December.

Russian commentators have dubbed the nationality-switchers “The Lost Generation." Some Russian fans are rooting for them—but others view them as traitors. Meanwhile, the athletes who were granted neutral status are also taking heat from top Russian officials. Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the head of Russia’s Olympic Committee, recently