Ahead of the Paris Olympics, aquatics and other sports bodies followed International Olympic Committee guidance and vetted individual athletes with passports from Russia and Belarus to return to competition. The IOC suggested a complete ban would be discrimination, though track and field's World Athletics imposed one.
The neutrality rules included not publicly supporting the invasion of Ukraine and not having ties to the military and state security agencies.
Four swimmers — one from Russia and three from Belarus — competed in Paris as neutral individuals without a national identity of team colors, flag or anthem. They won no medals.
The current list of approved neutral athletes in aquatics includes seven swimmers from Russia and seven from Belarus, three divers from Russia and three artistic swimmers from Belarus.
The IOC also advised continuing to exclude Russia and Belarus from team sports. The countries remain barred from international water polo “which intrinsically involves ... physical contact between athletes,” the World Aquatics guidelines stated.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports