LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Russia said on Saturday that 10 of its wrestlers who were offered spots at the Paris Olympics as neutrals will refuse to compete.
The Russian wrestling federation said in a statement that its officials, coaches and athletes held a meeting and “came to an unanimous decision — to refuse to participate in the Olympic Games.”
The wrestlers would have been the largest group of Russians in any one sport competing in Paris under the Individual Neutral Athlete program launched by the International Olympic Committee to allow some athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to compete during the war in Ukraine.
The IOC previously said it invited 10 Russian wrestlers to the Paris Olympics and its website listed nine of them as having agreed to compete, with one who declined.
The IOC didn't immediately respond to a request to comment on Saturday's statement by the Russian wrestling federation, whether it thought the wrestlers had faced any pressure to refuse, and whether it would support any wrestler who might wish to compete against the wishes of the federation.
The federation said it objected to the IOC’s choice of which wrestlers to invite. It said Russians had qualified up to 16 spots for the Paris Olympics, not 10, and that six of those invited were “far from the status of Russian team leaders.” The federation listed the names of top Russian wrestlers who didn’t get invitations and said the Olympic event would now be devalued.
“Any sane person understands that the status of the Olympic Games as the most significant sporting event is being questioned, and wrestling competitions without Russian athletes will be incomplete, and the champions will not receive the satisfaction of winning the Olympic tournament,” the statement said.
The IOC previously said it would only issue invitations to Russian and Belarusian athletes who do not have ties to the security services or military, and who have not publicly supported the war. They would compete in neutral uniforms and would not compete under the national flag.
Some Russian athletes and officials have favored competing at the Paris Olympics under those conditions, and others have called for boycotts. The wrestling federation had sent athletes to take part in qualifying competitions, unlike some other Russian sports bodies.
Last week, the Russian judo federation said its board had decided not to send any athletes to Paris. Its statement didn't specify what its athletes thought. The IOC told The Associated Press in an e-mailed statement Tuesday that it was waiting for an “individual reply” from the judo athletes. The IOC website lists one Russian competitor in judo as having accepted an invitation.
As of Sunday, the IOC website listed 23 Russian athletes in seven sports who it said had accepted invitations for the Paris Olympics, including the wrestlers. The 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev is among six tennis players who the IOC says have accepted.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
FILE - The Olympic rings are set up at Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sept. 14, 2017. Russia says that 10 of its wrestlers who were offered spots at the Paris Olympics as neutrals will refuse to compete. The Russian wrestling federation says that its officials, coaches and athletes held a meeting and “came to an unanimous decision — to refuse to participate in the Olympic Games.” (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family, the militant group said Saturday. The early morning strike came a day after another Israeli airstrike cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road.
Israel began a ground incursion Tuesday into Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Here is the latest:
BEIRUT — An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed a Hamas official and his family, the militant group said Saturday.
Hamas said in a statement that the early Saturday strike on the Beddawi refugee camp struck the home of Saeed Atallah Ali, an official with Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades. Ali’s wife, Shaymaa Azzam, and their two daughters, Zeinab and Fatima — whom the statement described as children — were also killed in the attack.
Beddawi camp is near the northern city of Tripoli. It was the first such strike on the camp in recent weeks that saw intensified exchanges between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023.
SEOUL, South Korea — A military plane evacuating 97 people from Lebanon arrived in South Korea on Saturday.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the group on the plane includes South Korean nationals and their family members. There are about 30 South Koreans left in Lebanon besides diplomats and embassy workers who are staying.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed officials Wednesday to send military aircraft to conflict areas in the Middle East as he called a meeting to discuss the impact of the intensified fighting in the region. There are about 480 South Korean nationals living in Israel and 110 in Iran.
Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout pro-Palestine and anti-Israel slogans during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians and against the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, at Mirgund north village of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
South Korean nationals and their family members arrive after being evacuated from Lebanon with a South Korea's military aircraft at the Seoul airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP)
Draped in the Hamas and Islamic Jihad flags, mourners take the last look at the bodies of 18 Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike during their funeral in Tulkarem, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout pro-Palestine and anti-Israel slogans during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians and against the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, at Mirgund north village of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
