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PARIS — Three years ago, more than 330 Russian athletes arrived in Tokyo for the 

. It was a powerhouse contingent that managed to score 71 Olympic gold medals in Tokyo.

 (IOC) officials say Russia will field scarcely more than a dozen athletes.

"We have 15 [athletes] with Russian passports," said Kit McConnell, the IOC's sport director, who added that the number who actually compete may change.

McConnell noted that Russian athletes will compete in only 10 sports disciplines, down from 30 just a few years ago.

The dramatic decline in Russia's involvement in the Olympic movement follows years of doping scandals that began in 2014, heightened by international condemnation that followed 

Ahead of the Paris Games, the IOC invited 

They would not be allowed to fly the Russian flag or play their country's national anthem.

IOC rules also banned any Russian athletes

 who are "actively supporting" the invasion of Ukraine, or who have served in Russia's military.

Russian officials balked at those limitations, 

In a statement issued last month, Russia's national judo federation said its athletes would decline to compete.

"Until the very end, we had hoped that common sense and a desire to hold full-fledged Olympic Games with athletes from Russia and Belarus would prevail over political intrigues," 

Russia's weightlifting federation also issued a statement saying its athletes would not compete, despite qualifying for the Paris Games.

This is the smallest Russian involvement in the Summer Olympics since 1984, when 

Belarus, one of Russia's closest allies, will also send far fewer athletes to Paris, down from 101 in 2021 to just 17 this summer.

Russia's role in the Olympic movement peaked in 2014, when President Vladimir Putin proudly welcomed the world to Sochi for the Winter Games.  

 hosting the Games, which were designed to showcase Russia's progress after the fall of the Soviet Union.

At the time, Russia was also a major financial sponsor of the IOC.  

But in the months following the Sochi Games, journalists uncovered a deeply entrenched Russian doping system.  

described the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs

 as an "institutional conspiracy" involving more than 1,000 athletes. 

That means Russian athletes can only compete as "individual neutral athletes," without flying the Russian flag or playing the national anthem.

 in Beijing, Russia suffered another black eye when it was revealed 

Last year, the IOC took a further step to punish Moscow, banning the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) from all international sports activities.

That move followed the ROC's decision to absorb sports clubs in regions of eastern Ukraine — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — occupied by Russia's invading army.

Last week, a human rights group called Global Rights Compliance 

 suggesting that as many as two-thirds of Russian athletes who qualified for the Paris Games had violated the IOC's neutrality rules by supporting the Ukraine war.

“The IOC is turning a blind eye to the involvement of Russian and Belarusian athletes who have demonstrated their support for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine," said Wayne Jordash, the organization's president. 

It's unclear, however, how many of the 57 Russian and Belarussian athletes named in the report will actually compete in Paris.

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Brian Mann

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In 2021, Russia sent 335 athletes to the Tokyo Summer Olympics. This year? The number of competitors is just 15. Doping scandals and the Ukraine war have taken a toll on the Olympic powerhouse.

Facing scandal and condemnation, Russia fields tiny Olympic team in Paris

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