Russian fencing legend Sofya Velikaya will boycott the Paris 2024 Olympics if she is not allowed to represent her country.
Velikaya, 36, has enjoyed a stellar career, first competing at the Summer Games in Beijing in 2008. Four years later in London, she won her maiden Olympic medal, taking individual silver.
She repeated that feat in 2016 in Rio but also won team gold, and then did exactly the same at the re-arranged 2020 event in Tokyo last summer. Prior to that, the veteran had been a flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Japan, leading the delegation carrying a white flag with the Russian Olympic Committee logo emblazoned on it.
She enjoys hero status in her homeland, and back in 2016 was elected the head of the Russian Olympic Committee Athletes' Commission. Furthermore, she has multiple World and European titles to her name.
However, she has not hit out at the prospect of having to compete as a neutral in France. Russian teams have been essentially banned from competing in international sport since the country's invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
Athletes who are permitted to compete as individuals, must do so without allegiance, with their national flag and anthem banned from events. At the most recent Winter Olympics in Beijing, Russian athletes again competed under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee.
However, both they and Belarus were barred from participating in the Winter Paralympics at the 11th hour, following a U-turn from the IPC. Now, in an interview with TASS, Velikaya has insisted she won't be adding to her Olympic legacy unless she can do so in her country's colours.
"Everyone should be on an equal footing - to perform under their own flag and with their own anthem," she is quoted as saying, via translation. "Now the Olympic Movement is a big question. Until equal conditions are created, I would not go to the Games.”
Veilkaya is no stranger to a controversial stance. In 2016 in Brazil, she dedicated her Olympic team gold medal to Russian athletes who had received bans following the allegations of state sponsored doping that shook the world of sport.
The issue of Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in sport has become an explosive one, with Wimbledon chiefs confirming this month players from both nations would be banned from this summer's tournament. The move has proved divisive, with Andrey Rublev branding it "complete discrimination."
The ATP have also warned that the All England Tennis Club could face legal action over the decision. The 2022 Kremlin Cup in Moscow had already been scrapped ay authorities.
Haas driver Nikita Mazepin was axed from F1 by his team amid his family links to Vladimir Putin, with the Russian Grand Prix also removed from the 2022 schedule. The country's football team was also removed from the qualification play-offs for the 2022 World Cup.
