Russian athletes are not allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics because of their country’s war in Ukraine.
Mariya Lasitskene won gold in high jump at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and is a three-time world champion, but is not there to defend her title.
The Olympics in Paris are also not even being shown on TV in Russia, which hasn’t happened since the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics 40 years ago.
15 Russians have been competing in Paris as "neutral athletes" in sports like canoeing and tennis.
They’re not allowed to present themselves as a national team, so no Russian flags, no national anthem. And the individual athletes have had to undergo a vetting procedure to establish they have no links to the Russian military or security agencies and do not actively support the war in Ukraine.
BBC’s Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg visits a nationalist group’s sports festival in Moscow.
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