Russia is set to postpone the World Friendship Games, once seen as a rival to Paris Olympics

PARIS (AP) — A Russian sports event widely regarded as an attempt to rival the Paris Olympics is set to be postponed to next year, organizers said Tuesday.

The World Friendship Games had been due to take place in Russia in September but will now move back to unspecified dates in 2025, the International Friendship Association, a body set up to organize the games, said in a statement. It added the decision is subject to approval by the Russian government.

“The main reason for reconsidering the Games dates is the insufficient recovery time for top athletes participating in major international tournaments in the summer of 2024,” the statement said, without mentioning the Paris Olympics by name.

There would have been just over a month between the end of the Paris Olympics and the proposed start of the World Friendship Games.

The International Olympic Committee was strongly opposed to any rival event. It said in March the proposed Russian event was “a cynical attempt by the Russian Federation to politicize sport” and called on governments and sports bodies “to reject any participation in, and support of, any initiative that intends to fully politicize international sport.”

Moscow-based organizers had tried to attract athletes with prize money. A graphic on the event’s website indicates winners at the World Friendship Games would get $40,000, second-place athletes $25,000 and third-place competitors $17,000. The IOC doesn’t pay prize money for Olympians.

There are 15 Russian athletes competing at the Paris Olympics under the name of Individual Neutral Athletes without the national flag or anthem.

The IOC set up the neutral program as a pathway back to competition for athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus who do not have ties to the military or security services and who have not publicly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some Russian athletes were also invited by the IOC to the Paris Olympics but declined to compete.

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