FILE PHOTO: Swimming – 17th FINA World Aquatics Championships – Women's 100m Breaststroke Final – Budapest, Hungary – July 25, 2017 – Yuliya Efimova of Russia competes. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh/File photo
DOHA (Reuters) - World Aquatics (WA) are standing by their strict criteria for Russian and Belarusian swimmers to return to international competition - even if it means some of the world's best from the two countries boycott the Paris Olympics.
Swimming's global governing body approved the return of Russian and Belarusian participants last September after banning them following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
