The road to the Paris 2024 Games is not yet completely closed for Russia, but it looks very uncertain. The IOC has confirmed that 24 countries will be invited to take part in the qualifying rounds for the upcoming Olympic men’s and women’s tournaments, but Russia is not on the list. The Olympic Qualification Tournaments (OQTs) are scheduled to take place in September and October 2023. They will award the first six tickets to the Games for both men and women, with France already assured a place as host nation. Five more teams will then be selected by the international volleyball body (FIVB), based on world ranking. This second opportunity to qualify for the Paris 2024 Games leaves Russia with a good chance of competing at the Olympics. The men’s team, which won silver last year in Tokyo, is ranked 5th in the world. The girls, on the other hand, are ranked 8th. However, their exclusion from international competitions risks causing them to fall down the world rankings. A spokesman for the Russian Volleyball Federation, quoted by TASS, said: “We can still make it to the Olympics based on the ranking, and the chances of doing so are quite high. We are limited by the inability to play in international competitions. But we will count on the possibility of participating in the Olympics until the end.”
