Latvian athletes Krists Neilands, Aļona Ostapenko and Toms Skujiņš have had state funding resorted after it was briefly withdrawn because they had competed in events against Russians ©Getty Images

Latvia's Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša has announced that tennis player Jeļena Ostapenko and cyclists Tomas Skujiņas and Kristas Neilands will no longer be banned from receiving state funding for participation in international competitions against athletes from Russia and Belarus.

The controversial ban was imposed as punishment for the athletes competing in the same competitions as Russian and Belarusian athletes, even though the athletes had no choice.

Latvia has been one of the main countries standing in solidarity with Ukraine after last year's invasion by Russia.

Many International Federations have banned Russian and Belarusian from competing in their competitions, but Latvia took it a step further, which affected their own athletes.

Tomas Skujiņas was confident the decision would be overturned when the ban was first announced ©Getty images
Tomas Skujiņas was confident the decision would be overturned when the ban was first announced ©Getty images

"Evaluating the circumstances related to the withholding of financial benefits for athletes of the Latvian Olympic team Aļona Ostapenko, Tom Skujiņš and Kristas Neiland, as well as listening to the opinion of the Latvian Cycling Federation and the Latvian Tennis Union, the Ministry of Education and Science in cooperation with the Latvian Olympic Committee has prepared amendments to the agreement on the state financial support for the athletes of the Latvian Olympic team," said Čakša.

"The amendments from today foresee preventing the withholding of benefits for the mentioned athletes and will ensure the full amount of funding."

Ostapenko was the 2017 French Open champion, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2018 and 2022 and the Australia Open in 2022.

Her father was Ukrainian and her grandmother continues to live in Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainian city which has been the scene of heavy fighting since the war with Russia started. 

Skujiņš, competes for the Trek Segafredo team and represented Latvia a the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, while Neiland rides for Israel-Premier Tech.

Skujiņš had expressed confidence that the ban would be swiftly overturned, claiming when it was announced that "there are more questions than answers".

Critics claimed it was unfair that former French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko had her state funding halted because she had played in tournaments featuring Russian players ©Getty Images
Critics claimed it was unfair that former French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko had her state funding halted because she had played in tournaments featuring Russian players ©Getty Images

The athletes were unhappy with the initial decision, while leaders amongst the sports world expressed their disagreement.

"No one wanted to offend any athlete personally," said Čakša.

"Let’s not forget that there is a war going on nearby. 

"We have to be very careful about ways our aggressive neighbour’s actions could affect us."