The news had already been in the air for weeks, even though the door had reopened: at the Paris Olympics, as far as fencing is concerned, it is now official that there will be no representatives of Russia and Belarus.
As reported by Agence France-Presse, Giorgio Scarsopresident of the European Fencing Confederation said: “Unfortunately there are no Russian or Belarusian athletes” referring to the continental Olympic qualifying tournament in Differdange in Luxembourg.
This was the last chance, on an individual level, to grab a ticket to the Transalpine Games, obviously with the already highlighted condition that they did not publicly support the war against Ukraine and were not employed in the army or security services.
However, everything was anticipated by the comment of Ilgar Mamedov, head of the Russian fencing federation: “We have made our principled position clear: we will not divide our team between those who please the West and those who, in their opinion, are the ‘bad Russians’.”
