Swimming becomes first major Olympic sport to lift restrictions on Russian athletes

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The governing body for international swimming and aquatic sports will allow athletes from Russia to compete without restrictions and with their national flag and anthem.

World Aquatics says it will remove restrictions which had required Russian and Belarusian athletes to be vetted and to compete under neutral status.

It says they will take part “in the same way as their counterparts representing other sport nationalities.” Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyaryov has praised the decision and Ukraine has condemned it as “shameful and divorced from reality”.

World Aquatics isn’t the first sports body to reinstate Russia in full but it’s by far the biggest.

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Russian Swimmers' Restrictions Lifted