The sports world seems to still have a penchant for banning Russian athletes competitors.
Wimbledon announced that Russian and Belarusian tennis athletes will not be allowed to compete in the iconic tournament, but those same athletes can compete in the French Open as neutral athletes.
The Russian regime would not accept any benefit from Russian or Belarusian participants in The Championships under such circumstances. It is therefore our intention, with deep regret, to decline entries from Russian and Belarusian players to The Championships 2022,” the All England Club said in a statement.
It is admirable to want Russia to answer for their actions. However, penalizing athletes who had nothing to do the war seems like an error of judgment.
Related: Russia’s National Soccer Team Banned from World Cup Qualifying
The ban will stop several tennis superstars from taking part in the tournament. This includes men’s No. 1 player. 2 Daniil Medvedev (who was the runner up at the 2022 Australian Open) and women’s world No. 4 Aryna Sabalenka, who reached the women’s semifinals of Wimbledon last year.
This is the first time Wimbledon has banned athletes from participating in the tournament since post-World War II, when German and Japanese players were prohibited from participating.
Shamil Tarpischev of Russian Tennis Federation stated that nothing can be done to improve Wimbledon’s position.
“I think this decision is wrong but there is nothing we can change,” Tarpischev told Russia’s sport Express newspaper. “The Russian Tennis Federation (Russian Tennis Federation), has already done everything that it could. Although I won’t talk about it, I’ll say this: This decision went against the athletes.
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