Olympic Games: First medal for Russian athletes as AIN is a silver tennis medal

PARIS (AP) The first medal for a Russian athlete at the 2024 Olympic Games technically not representing their country, but compete as neutralsbecause of the war in Ukraine, came into tennis on Sunday, when Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider won silver in the women's doubles.

Andreeva and Shnaider lost the final to Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy 2-6, 6-1, 10-7 in a match tiebreaker. Olympics doubles use a first-to-10 tiebreaker instead of a standard third set.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete in the Paris Games as Individual Neutral Athletes, known by the French abbreviation AIN. These countries were banned from team sports at the Paris Games by the International Olympic Committee because the attack on Ukraine that began in February 2022.

Individual athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports were allowed to compete as neutral participants if they qualified and were subsequently approved to participate in the Olympic Games.

I'm not going to discuss a political topic here. … I'm here to talk about tennis, Shnaider said at the post-match press conference, where both Russians wore plain white T-shirts.

When the silver medalists were asked how they felt about being part of the AIN group, instead of Russia, Andreeva replied: I have no way to answer this. For me, honestly, it doesn't matter. I just go there, I play and I fight. And this week we played and fought together.

AIN athletes are not allowed to wear uniforms that indicate their country of origin, so Andreeva and Shnaider wore all-white outfits on court, with no flag or other markings related to Russia. Shnaider had said earlier in the tournament that she wore the same outfit in Paris as she did last month at Wimbledon, where there is a policy requiring white clothing.

On Friday, Ivan Litvinovich and Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, both from Belarus, won the first medals by AIN athletes at the Paris Olympics, both in trampoline. Litvinovich claimed gold in the men's event and Bardzilouskaya took silver in the women's event. Yauheni Zalati, also from Belarus, won silver in rowing on Saturday.

Andreeva, 17, is the second-youngest player to win a medal in Olympic tennis. Jennifer Capriati was 16 when she won the singles gold for the United States in Barcelona in 1992.

Shnaider, 20, played one season of college tennis at North Carolina State. This was the first tournament she and Andreeva played together in doubles. Andreeva was a singles semifinalist at the French Open in June.

Shnaider, whose family lives in Moscow, and Andreeva, who trains in Cannes, France, knocked out the second-seeded duo of Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, the Tokyo Olympic champions, in the quarterfinals.

Errani and Paolini gave Italy its first gold medal in tennis at a Summer Olympics. Lorenzo Musetti won bronze in the men's singles on Saturday. The two medals are the first for their country since a single bronze medal at the 1924 Paris Games.

The 37-year-old Errani completed a Golden Slam by adding her Olympic gold medal to her five Grand Slam doubles titles, including at least one in each of the four major tournaments, with another partner, Roberta Vinci.

Paolini is having her best season as a professional tennis player. She is coming off singles runner-up finishes at the French Open and Wimbledon, and she and Errani were also doubles finalists at the French Open, where they lost to Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova.

Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo won the bronze for Spain after beating Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games