Up to 500 athletes from Russia and Belarus will be allowed to participate in the 2023 Asian Games, which will be held in September-October in Hangzhou, China. Insidethegames writes that the decision was made on July 8th.
Russians and Belarusians will compete under a neutral flag and will not be able to claim medals. However, participation in the Asian Games will allow them to qualify for the 2024 Olympics. The Asian Games were supposed to take place last year but were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In March, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that athletes from Russia and Belarus be allowed to participate in international competitions, but only in neutral status. In addition, athletes should not speak publicly in support of the war in Ukraine.
Earlier in July, it turned out that Russian athletes are participating in the Pan-Arab Games taking place in Algeria under the guise of athletes from Syria. At the same time, only two of them passed the official procedure for changing sports citizenship – Alexandra Maksimova in artistic gymnastics and Milana Mrad in judo. Some athletes in the applications have changed names and dates of birth.