Though Olympics viewers missed out on artistic gymnastics Friday, the unique, one-day trampoline gymnastics event took place, with two of the event's medalists leaving many fans with questions.
Both the gold medalist for the men's event, Ivan Litvinovich, and the silver medalist for the women's event, Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, were not representing a country on the podium, but rather "AIN."
The athletes are competing under the Individual Neutral Atheletes delegation, or AIN (IOC country code after the French name Athlètes Individuels Neutres).
Though many of the athletes competing under the AIN name are Russian, both Litvinovich and Bardzilouskaya are Belarusian.
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Both Russia and Belarus were banned from competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics by the International Olympic Committee due to the nations' involvement in the war in Ukraine.
Though the restrictions on competition are rather new to Belarus, Russia has faced sanctions for different issues in recent Olympics.
Russia has been forced to compete under various names at the Olympics since 2016, the year several Russian athletes were found to be involved in a years-long, state-sponsored doping scheme that saw them win a collection of medals.
In 2017, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended Russia, but several Russian athletes who were not involved in the scheme won an appeal to compete. Those athletes were required do so under different names.
At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Russian athletes who passed drug tests competed under the "Olympic Athletes from Russia," or OAR, delegation.
In 2019, Russia was officially banned from the Olympics by the World Anti-Doping Agency for four years, but that ban was shortened to two years after Russia appealed.
In addition to trampoline gymnastics, AIN athletes are also competitors in canoeing, judo, modern pentathlon, road cycling, rowing, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, tennis and weightlifting.
