The decision taken by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Executive Board today clears the way for both nations to send athletes to the third Olympic qualifier next month, the IWF Grand Prix in Cuba, subject to eligibility checks and their neutral status.

Weightlifting joins judo, archery, fencing, modern pentathlon, skateboarding, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon and wrestling in allowing athletes from the two countries to compete in qualifying.

Athletics, badminton, basketball, equestrian, sport climbing and surfing have decided against lifting the bans which they imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine 15 months ago.

The IWF followed advice from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in making its decision, it said in a statement.

The IOC’s recommendations cover "eligibility criteria which athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport must adhere to in order to take part in IWF competitions, as well as the observance of their strict neutrality status during their participation in those events."

"As part of this process, individual checks will be performed by independent agencies on all athletes and respective support personnel with Russian or Belarusian passports, who are aiming to take part in IWF competitions," the IWF said.

"The IWF would like to highlight that this decision, also strongly supported by the IWF Athletes Commission, represents the best possible balance between maintaining the IWF’s ongoing position of solidarity with Ukraine and the need to preserve as much as possible the opportunity for all individual neutral athletes to practice sport irrespective of their nationalities.

"From the beginning of this profound crisis, which deeply affects the conduct of international sport, the IWF has been mindful to observe the recommendations issued by the IOC."

Ukraine is unlikely to send a team to Cuba or any other Olympic qualifying event after the IWF’s decision, although it faces an outright ban from Paris anyway because of multiple doping violations in recent months.

This is the latest possible entry point for weightlifters hoping to qualify for Paris, where the 10 medal events run from August 7 to 11 next year.

The neutrals from Russia and Belarus would not have been eligible to qualify if they had not entered the IWF Grand Prix, the third of seven qualifying opportunities.

They will have to provide their whereabouts details for the entire period before Paris 2024 because of pre-entry requirements for the remaining qualifiers, the IWF World Championships in Saudi Arabia in September, a second IWF Grand Prix in Qatar in December, next year’s continental championships in February, and the final IWF World Cup in Thailand in April.

The decision could give Russia’s Tatiana Kashirina a chance to add an Olympic gold medal to a glittering career.

The super-heavyweight multiple world champion finished second to China’s Zhou Lulu at London 2012 - her only defeat in seven years - and missed Rio 2016 and the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games for reasons beyond her control.

Russia was banned outright from Rio because of multiple doping violations, and Kashirina was provisionally suspended at the time of the Tokyo Games for an historic doping charge that was later dropped.

Kashirina, 32, has lifted more than even the current super-heavyweight Olympic and world champion Li Wenwen, from China. 

She set a world record total of 348 kilograms in the old plus-90kg class, which is 15kg more than Li’s current world record at plus-87kg.

Whether Kashirina competes as a super-heavyweight in qualifying remains to be seen, as there has been talk of her dropping down to 81kg.

In Tokyo, two weightlifters competed as members of the Russian Olympic Committee team. Kristina Sobol failed to make a total in the women’s 49kg and Timur Naniev finished fourth in the men’s 109kg.

Belarus was also restricted to two athletes in Tokyo because of multiple doping violations.

Yauheni Tsikhantsou failed to make a total at 96kg and Darya Naumova was fifth in the women’s 76kg.