Russia’s sporting freeze grows over Ukraine invasion

PARIS: Russia continued to pay a heavy sporting price for its invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday, frozen out by a snowballing list of sports with perhaps the most painful blows coming from ice skating and athletics. However, Russian and Belarusian tennis players will be allowed to continue competing on the WTA and ATP Tours and in Grand Slam tournaments, despite its teams being suspended from the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup.

Russia, traditionally a powerhouse in figure skating — they won six medals at the Beijing Olympics including two gold — had their skaters barred from all competitions. This rules them out of March’s world championships to be hosted in Montpellier, France.

Their track and field athletes, as well as those from Belarus, joined them from being barred from this year’s world championships — indoors and outdoors — later on Tuesday. It was a decision not taken lightly, with World Athletics president Sebastian Coe describing it as “going against the grain” to punish athletes “but sport has to step up.” Belarusian athletes are being punished as the country is being condemned internationally for being used as a launchpad by Russian forces to attack neighboring Ukraine.

Both are significant blows for Russia, which under President Vladimir Putin had used sport as a powerful force for its image both globally and internally. Under his presidency it has hosted the Winter Olympics in 2014 in Sochi — although that was overshadowed by the state-sponsored doping scandal — and the 2018 men’s football World Cup.

On Monday, the governing bodies who oversee those sporting showpieces hit Russia hard. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) urged sports federations and organizers to exclude Russian and Belarusian