Angelina Melnikova

After a list was circulated throughout the Russian gymnastics community showing a list of gymnasts who were and were not approved for neutral status to compete at international events, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has made the decisions official with updates to their Authorized Neutral Athletes (AIN) list.

The list of approved athletes includes Olympic champion Angelina Melnikova among a wealth of young athletes who have been successful domestically but have never competed outside of Russia or Belarus as they reached an internationally competitive age or peak performance level after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The conflict, along with the behavior of some athletes – like Ivan Kuliak, who proudly wore a “Z” on his chest in support of the war while sharing a world cup podium with a Ukrainian athlete – prompted the FIG and other governing bodies – including eventually the International Olympic Committee – to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from international sports. But beginning in July 2023, the FIG began to allow athletes from both countries to apply for neutral status, with a handful of Belarusians approved in time for the 2024 Olympic qualification process, though Russia previously abstained from participating.

For both WAG and MAG, the most recent list of approved Russian athletes include a number of junior and senior national champions who have a lot of potential to medal at high-level competitions going forward, especially MAG standout Daniel Marinov, who won the national all-around titles in 2023 and 2024 among other notable recognitions, and Vladislav Poliashov, an Olympian and two-time world medalist as part of the Russian teams in 2018 and 2019.

The list also includes Maria Agafonova, Alyona Glotova, Anna Kalmykova, Zlata Osokina, Lyudmila Roshchina, and first-year senior Ksenia Zelyaeva on the WAG side, and Ilia Zaika, Kirill Prokopev, and Grigoriy Klimentev on the MAG side.

Most notably absent among those who applied for neutral status is Viktoria Listunova, who recently made her first appearance outside of Russia since 2022 as part of the Ginnastica Riccione team in Italy’s Serie A league before tearing her Achilles. Listunova had attended pro-war rallies and has otherwise been used in state-sponsored propaganda, putting her at the top of a list Ukraine published highlighting athletes across various sports who have supported the war, leading to her request being denied.

Interesting – and controversial – is that Listunova does not train at a military sports club like the Central Sports Club of the Army (CSKA) or Dynamo, while Melnikova, Kalmykova, Prokopiev, and Klimentev do, and Marinov was also one of the athletes specifically called out on Ukraine’s list after openly supporting the war. The FIG’s own ad hoc rules state that any athlete affiliated with military clubs should be automatically denied for neutral status, while their decision to deny Listunova but approve Marinov despite them being on the same list of pro-war athletes points to a decision-making process that is completely lacking in transparency.

In addition to Listunova, MAG athlete Aleksei Usachov also had his request denied, reportedly for liking a pro-war social media post. To my knowledge, neither Melnikova nor Kalmykova have outwardly supported the war either on social media or otherwise, so it seems the FIG has made public endorsements a priority over factors, but abandoning the club affiliation rules goes against their own standards and is something the organization needs to clarify.

Article by Lauren Hopkins