There is a chance the medal table at Paris 2024 will not add up.
That is because athletes from Russia and Belarus will be competing at the Olympics as Individual Neutral Athletes and as well as not being allowed their national flags or anthems, they are also not going to be included in the official medal table.
Russia and Belarus are banned from sending teams to the Games following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has been supported by Belarus.
But the countries are being invited to send individual athletes who meet strict criteria set out by the International Olympic Committee, IOC, relating to whether athletes support the war or have military links.
Russia has historically sent some of the largest contingents to the Olympics – even when competing at recent Games under sanctions imposed after a doping scandal – and is one of the medal-winning heavyweights.
But this time it will be very different.
The IOC has invited just 36 Russian and 24 Belarusian athletes – of which only 15 Russians and 17 Belarusians have accepted the invitations.
At Tokyo 2020, the Russian Olympic Committee sent 335 athletes and Belarus sent 101.
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