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The Russian and Belarusian delegations to subsequent month’s Maccabiah Video games in Israel withdrew themselves from the large worldwide occasion, the organizers mentioned Wednesday.
The announcement got here after a report Tuesday within the UK’s Jewish Information {that a} Russian group had been drawn to compete towards Ukraine within the ladies’s seashore volleyball occasion, which might be a deeply uncomfortable state of affairs given Moscow’s ongoing invasion of the nation that has killed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians.
A spokesperson for the Maccabiah Video games denied the report, saying Russia wouldn’t be collaborating in that occasion or certainly within the video games, and that the story seemed to be based mostly on an “administrative error” on the Maccabiah web site.
The Maccabiah Video games can be held throughout Israel from July 12 to 26, and they’re projected to be one of many largest sporting occasions ever. Some 10,000 Jewish athletes from about 60 nations are anticipated to compete in dozens of sports activities at amenities all through the nation. For comparability, roughly 11,000 athletes took half within the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Based on the spokesperson, the Russian delegation withdrew from the occasion 4 months in the past — which might imply at across the time Russia invaded Ukraine. It was not instantly clear when the Belarusian group pulled out.
A spokesperson for the Maccabiah mentioned the selection to withdraw from the competitors was made by the nations’ delegations of their very own accord. They did so earlier than the organizing committee had determined whether or not or to not permit the Russian delegation to compete in mild of the nation’s invasion of Ukraine, the spokesperson mentioned. Russia and Russian sportspeople have been banned from different worldwide competitions for that reason.
As of this Wednesday afternoon, nevertheless, each Russia and Belarus have been nonetheless listed as individuals on the Maccabiah’s official web site. The itemizing that confirmed Russia competing towards Ukraine in ladies’s seashore volleyball, highlighted and screenshot by the UK Jewish Information on Tuesday, had been eliminated, nevertheless.
Regardless of the official delegations bowing out, some Russian and Belarusian athletes will nonetheless compete within the video games.
Partly to accommodate athletes from these nations, the Maccabiah will host a brand new “Olim” group — olim being the Hebrew phrase for Jewish immigrants to Israel. New immigrant athletes from Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ukraine, america and different nations may also play on the “Olim” group, a spokesperson mentioned.
Members of this new group will seem below the flag of the Maccabiah, not their start nations. The “Olim” group can have “no affiliation to Russia and the Russian flag,” she mentioned.
The Maccabiah is often held each 4 years. It was meant to have taken place in 2021, however the video games have been postponed as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
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