Russian trio denied visas for world championships
BBC Sport · C · trust 50/100
The Netherlands has denied visas to three Russian gymnasts leaving them unable to compete at next week's World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, Russia's governing body says.
Reigning women's all-around world title holder Angelina Melnikova is among the trio, which also includes Viktoria Listunova and Anna Kalmykova.
The Russian Gymnastics Federation (RGF) has labelled the decision "discrimination" and a "violation" of the principles of equal competition, accusing the Dutch authorities of deliberately trying to keep the "strongest gymnasts" out of the event.
"The Embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow has notified the visa centre of its refusal to issue visas to three leaders of the Russian women's national team," the RGF said in a statement.
"As a result, the gymnasts have been deprived of the opportunity to compete at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships."
Russia said it would appeal against the decision to the World Gymnastics governing body and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with the competition due to run from 17-25 October.
In August, Melnikova was initially denied a visa to compete at the European Championships in Croatia.
The decision was reversed on appeal and she subsequently won the all-around gold medal.
The move from Dutch officials means the world championships will be affected by visa refusals for a second consecutive year.
Israeli gymnasts, including defending world floor champion Artem Dolgopyat, were denied entry to Indonesia for the 2025 championships in Jakarta because of the country's involvement in the conflict in Gaza.
Russia is scaling up its push to be brought back into the world of sport, following years of restrictions after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the uncovering of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
In July the IOC eased restrictions on Russian athletes , opening a path for them to compete in qualifying events for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
However, national tennis federations have decided Russia and Belarus should remain banned from competing in the Davis Cup and BJK Cup team competitions.
The two countries were suspended by World Tennis - formerly known as the International Tennis Federation (ITF) - in March 2022 and a vote by the 128 member nations on Tuesday has ruled the restrictions should stay in place.
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