Russian tennis player Rublev rejects Paris invitation, Medvedev accepts

Tokyo Olympic doubles gold medalist Andrei Rublev and tennis players Darya Kasatkina and Anna Kalinskaya are among 12 Russians and Belarusians who have declined an invitation to compete in the Paris Games as neutral athletes.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday announced its latest list of neutral athletes, with 2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev and women’s world No. 22 Ekaterina Alexandrova among the 31 athletes accepted for registration.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus – Moscow’s closest allies in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine – were banned from the Paris Olympics, with only a handful of athletes allowed to compete as neutrals without their flags and anthems.

The International Olympic Committee has conducted strict vetting of these athletes to ensure they have no ties to the military.

Russia condemned the restrictions as discriminatory, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying the IOC was “slipping into racism and neo-Nazism”.

World No. 6 Rublev, women’s No. 12 Kasatkina and No. 18 Kalinskaya, as well as Tokyo Olympics singles silver medalists Karen Khachanov and Lyudmila Samsonova, have all declined the chance to play.

Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, who won doubles gold and singles bronze at the 2012 London Open, has accepted the invitation, but Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka has yet to accept or reject it.

The Belarusian world number three withdrew from Wimbledon on Monday with a shoulder injury and Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tapishchev said last month that Rublev would miss the Olympics for health reasons.

Other athletes who accepted the invitation from the International Olympic Committee include gymnast Ivan Litvinovich, who won the gold medal for Belarus in the trampoline event at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, and Russian canoeist Alexey Kolovashkov, who won the bronze medal at the London Olympics.

The Paris Olympics will be held from July 26 to August 11, and the tennis tournament will be held from July 27 to August 4 at Roland Garros, home of the French Open.