Multi-Olympic Medalist Russian Team’s Paris Olympics Hopes Shattered as FIBA Takes a Strong Step Amidst Ukraine Controversy

The upcoming Paris Olympics has already created a lot of buzz surrounding various arenas and issues. Politics and sports have come together, and various subjects have been brought up ahead of the championship. Particularly, the participation of the countries like Russia and Belarus is being debated by various federations and the mass.

Recently, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) announced that they won’t allow the Russian men’s basketball team to participate in the Pre-Qualifying Tournaments. This comes after the International Olympic Committee’s decision to let Russian and Belarusian athletes participate under a neutral flag. Let’s dive into the details.

Russian men’s basketball team joins their women counterparts ahead of Paris Olympics

Last year, the Russian women’s basketball team was suspended from qualifying tournaments for two years in light of the Russia-Ukraine war. In fact, the committee even released a statement back then, declaring a ban on Russians from participating in any international events. And this year, FIBA announced the ban on the men’s team, thus eliminating the country’s participation in the final event altogether.

Earlier, the IOC released a statement allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes’ participation in the Olympics, provided they compete as individuals. They couldn’t, however, participate as a team representing their country or an organization associated with their country.

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Interestingly, FIBA did not bring up the Belarusian basketball team since the country didn’t rank high enough to participate. The Pre-Qualifying tournaments have come up as a relief for countries who missed out on the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. Around 40 nations still have the chance to make it to the upcoming Olympics.

What about the qualifiers by other Olympic federations?

According to Forbes, FIBA is not the only organization that took major decisions surrounding Russia and Belarus’s participation. Many other Olympic federations went ahead and either canceled their qualifying events or upheld their ban on the countries.

The Polish, German, and French Fencing Federations announced the cancellation of qualifying events. Whereas the International Ice Hockey Federation and International Gymnastics Federation upheld their ban on Russian and Belarusian teams. While the IOC’s decision still stands, it is unclear as to what the future holds for athletes from both countries.

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