World Friendship Games - Rysslands OS alternativ

Dear colleagues, friends,
We would like to thank you for your interest in the World Friendship Games 2024.
The Games were conceived as a major international commercial elite multi-sport event, featuring the world's top athletes in 36 sports. We have already received applications from more than 3 thousand foreign athletes from 140 countries. This response proves the growing appeal and importance of the World Friendship Games as a platform for strengthening international unity and partnership through the spirit of sport.
However, the tournament rights holder, the International Friendship Association (IFA), expressed serious concerns about a number of circumstances that make it difficult to stage the Games in 2024 and proposed to reschedule the event to the year of 2025. The IFA takes into account the worries of the international sports community regarding the busy 2024 international sports calendar and the inability of athletes to properly recover after the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games and then prepare for the World Friendship Games.
The Organising Committee of the World Friendship Games shares IFA’s opinion and supports the postponement of the Games, believing that this initiative will maximise the availability of athletes and officials in a non-Olympic year and allow a new commercial tournament to be held in our country at the highest level.
At the same time, we remain firm in our belief that politics has no place in sport and that athletes should have equal opportunities within the sports environment.
We hope that this decision will be met with understanding and that future participants of the Games will have sufficient time to prepare to reach their full athletic potential in the first edition of the World Friendship Games.
The new dates for the Games will be announced shortly.
Sincerely,
World Friendship Games
Local Organising Committee team