The BRICS Games are taking shape. With less than nine months to go before the event, organised for the first time next June (12 to 23) in Kazan by Russia in response to its exclusion from the Olympic movement, the organisers seem to be thinking very big. Tatarstan’s sports minister, Vladimir Leonov, told the TASS agency that he hoped to attract delegations from at least 70 countries. “The programme of competitions has been drawn up in advance, he explained. We will have 25 or 26 sports. We have begun the process of setting up the organising committee and we know more or less how many countries can already be invited. The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and those that will be joining the association on 1 January next year will of course be taking part, but we also want to invite around 60 more countries. In all, 70 to 72 countries will certainly be invited. We will also determine who else we can invite on an individual basis.” At the last BRICS summit, held from 22 to 24 August in Johannesburg, it was decided that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would join the group from 1 January 2024.
