Russia is banned from the Paris Olympics, but its athletes aren’t. Instead, they’ll be competing as Individual Neutral Athletes, without their country’s flags.

Axar.az reports that traditionally an Olympic power, Russia will have just a handful of athletes at this year’s Paris Games. Here’s what you need to know about Russia at this year’s Olympics.
Individual Russian athletes allowed to compete as neutrals in qualifying events can apply for entry to the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee has banned Russia from all team sports, however, because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russian athletes who want to compete in Paris must go through a two-stage approval process. They must petition the governing bodies of their sports, then be approved by an IOC review panel that judges if the athletes have expressed support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or have ties to sports clubs linked to the Russian military.

If approved by the IOC, Russian athletes will be considered Individual Neutral Athletes — abbreviated as AIN, after the French translation of that phrase — and will not be allowed to feature the Russian flag on their uniforms, instead wearing the red, white and blue of France’s flag. If a Russian athlete wins a gold medal, the country’s national anthem will be replaced by IOC-commissioned music and a generic AIN flag will be raised. (In previous Games when Russian athletes were limited, the Olympic flag had been raised.

It should be noted that the medals won by Russian athletes will not be included in the official medal tally.