Paris 2024 will not officially include Russia, for its war in Ukraine and has since been excluded from many international sporting events.

At the Olympics, it has been decided to include Russian athletes, and also Belarusian athletes, in the neutral category: they have to prove that they reject the invasion of Ukraine and that they have no links with the Russian army.  

They will then be able to compete, but not under their country's flag: they will not take part in the opening ceremony and any medals they win will be awarded to them individually, but will not count towards their country's overall result.

Global Rights Compliance, a human rights foundation based in The Hague, recently claimed that 10 of the 15 Russians at the Games had violated ‘the principles of participation’ of neutral athletes.

Four of the 10 - Mirra Andreeva, Pavel Kotov, Diana Shnaider and Elena Vesnina - are participating as neutrals in the tennis event starting Saturday at Roland Garros. Global Rights Compliance alleged that Ukrainian-born Vesnina ‘liked’ messages about ‘military exploits’ of Russian soldiers killing Ukrainians and messages displaying the pro-war ‘Z’ symbol.

In response, David Haggerty, president of the International Tennis Federation, told AFP on Thursday that the International Olympic Committee had overseen the process.

Russian tennis players allowed to compete as neutrals at the Olympics have been vetted ‘very thoroughly’, the sport's chief told AFP, despite allegations that some may have breached the conditions of that neutrality.

‘They had a panel and they investigated very thoroughly to make sure that the athletes competing were actually neutral,’ Haggerty said.
In total, there are seven Russian players in the Paris tennis event, with former world number one Daniil Medvedev, Roman Safiullin and Ekaterina Alexandrova making up the team of neutrals.

It is an example of how geopolitics ultimately affects the games: Ukraine's delegation is the smallest in its history, as many athletes have been killed or enlisted, and have to train under bombardment. Stamps have been issued to support them, and for many of them, Oleg Verniaiev or Nataliia Dobrynska, a good result would be a way of raising their profile.

Russia has also been singled out at the games for fear of disinformation operations, another of the challenges that mark the complex logistics of a global event that must combine the proper organisation of sport and security at all levels: from avoiding riots or terrorist attacks to taking care of computer security and communications.