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The International Olympic Committee has made it official that Russian and Belarusian athletes will be able to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The condition, however, will be that they will do so as neutral athletes, without any flag, anthem or emblems with which they can be associated with their countries.
Green light therefore for tennis players like Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev or Aryna Sabalenka, who will be able to participate in the next edition of the Olympic Games and compete to win a prestigious medal to add to their trophy cabinet.
In the last edition of the Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020, Russia received two prestigious medals from Karen Khachanov, who won silver in the men's singles and from the pair formed by Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, gold medal in the mixed doubles .
It will therefore be a good opportunity for number 3 in the ATP ranking Daniil Medvedev to fill his trophy cabinet. The 27-year-old from Moscow has won titles in all ATP categories, and a medal at the games would further enrich his palmares.
Among the twenty titles won in his career, Medvedev has a Slam (the 2021 US Open), 6 Master 1000, 4 ATP 500, eight 250 and the 2020 Finals.
The forgiveness of Russian and Belarusian athletes
The brutal conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has shaken the whole world since February 2022, has also had a great impact on the tennis Tour, which has strongly opposed the invasion of the Russian army.
The grip of the tennis world has led to some penalizing decisions against Russian and Belarusian athletes, who in addition to having to give up their flag, have been excluded from some of the most important events, one above all the 2022 Wimbledon tournament.
In 2023 things have changed and the limitations on Russian representatives have gradually become less strict. During the season Ukrainian players, to protest against WTA and ATP, decided, for example, to not shake hand with Russian and Belarusian players: the last were Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk.
Aryn Sabalenka got a lot of criticisms by her collegues during 2023, for not taking a strong position regarding the Belarusian Government's policy regarding the war. She even asked the media not to ask her questions about the war during press conferences.