“Infernal scandal” – Russian athletes as Syrians on the starting list “The interest in women’s football is there, now investments are needed”

Russian journalist Sergei Lisin named seven athletes on Telegram. Accordingly, there are two cyclists, a judoka, a gymnast, a badminton player, an athlete and a swimmer. Two of them also had their date of birth changed to make them younger. “A great scandal awaits us,” Lissin wrote.

The Russian Ministry of Sports and several national sports federations have now responded. According to the ministry, two of the athletes are officially registered representatives of the Syrian team with the relevant international federations and are not currently part of the Russian national teams. For the remaining five, the information on the Pan Arab Games website does not correspond to reality, the ministry said.

Russian athletes are banned from many international sporting events because of the Russian offensive war that Moscow has been waging against Ukraine for more than 16 months. The national athletics and cycling federations announced that they would investigate the matter.

The organizers of the Pan Arab Games initially did not respond to the messages. The multi-sport event, a kind of Olympic Games of the Arab countries, will take place in Algeria until July 15. About 3800 athletes from 22 countries participate. (ram/sda/dpa)