IWF World Cup: Belarusians qualify for Olympics

April 8, Pozirk. The IWF World Cup has announced Yauheni Tsikhantsou (Jaŭhien Cichancoŭ), a Belarusian competing under the neutral flag, as the third place winner in Men’s 102 kg in Phuket.

He lifted 183 kg in the snatch and 217 kg in the clean and jerk. This gave him a combined total of 400 kg and a place at the Olympic Games.

Siuzanna Valodzka (Siuzana Vałodźka), another neutral athlete from Belarus, also secured an Olympic license finishing 10^th in Women’s 71 kg at the IWF World Cup yesterday. She lifted 108 kg in the snatch and 129 kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 237 kg.

On March 25, it was reported that Belarusian trampoline gymnasts Ivan Litvinovich (Ivan Litvinovič) and Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya (Vijaleta Bardziłoŭskaja) will compete at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics as individual neutral athletes.

Litvinovič had signed an open letter of athletes who supported the authoritarian regime in Minsk amid reprisals in the fall of 2020.

The Tribuna news website estimated that Belarusians secured a total of 17 Olympic licenses: seven in wrestling, three in swimming, two in trampoline, two in weightlifting, one in rowing, one in cycling and one in taekwondo.

When the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, the IOC urged sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from competitions.

It later recommended that some of them could be allowed as neutral athletes under certain conditions, such as not supporting the war. In December 2023, the IOC allowed neutrals to compete in the 2024 Olympics.

The Games will be held from July 26 to August 11.