"Too early to talk about Russian judokas neutral status", believes the president of Russian Judo. BELTA.BY

The president of the Russian Judo Federation, Sergey Soloveychik, is still unsure about the status of Russian judokas at Paris 2024. In December 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes will be able to compete at Paris 2024 as neutral athletes.

Soloveychik noted that is still too early to talk about the athletes' status. "The qualifying competitions for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris are currently underway. Our athletes are competing for ranking points and win quotas for participation in the Olympic Games. The participants will not be known until the end of May, when the International Judo Federation (IJF) will approve the final results of the selection. 

We still have to participate in quite a large number of evaluation tournaments and at the moment we are concentrating on the successful performance of our athletes. It is too early to say anything about the neutral status of our participation in Paris 2024 and the fulfillment of any other necessary criteria," Soloveychik commented to Ria Novosti. 

"We hope that our athletes will be able to obtain as many licences as possible to take part in the Olympic Games," the JFR president concluded.