Russian fencing legend Sofya Velikaya will boycott the Paris 2024 Olympics if she is not allowed to represent her country.
Velikaya, 36, has enjoyed a stellar career, first competing at the Summer Games in Beijing in 2008. Four years later in London, she won her maiden Olympic medal, taking individual silver.
She repeated that feat in 2016 in Rio but also won team gold, and then did exactly the same at the re-arranged 2020 event in Tokyo last summer. Prior to that, the veteran had been a flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Japan, leading the delegation carrying a white flag with the Russian Olympic Committee logo emblazoned on it.
