Russia’s World Friendship Games, scheduled for September 2024, have been postponed until 2025, according to a July 30 statement by the International Friendship Association, the official organizer of the games. The association said “insufficient time for the recovery of leading athletes” from the Paris Olympics prompted the delay. Russian authorities and organizers claimed the competition would include athletes from 70 countries around the world who would participate in 33 Olympic and non-Olympic sports. The games, reminiscent of the 1984 Soviet Union’s Friendship Games, have provoked condemnations from the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency. To read the original story on RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.
Organizers Postpone Russia's World Friendship Games Until 2025
Organizers claimed the games would include athletes from 70 countries around the world who would participate in 33 sports, including wrestling. (file photo)