Due to sanctions imposed by the IOC, Belarusian and Russian athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics only as neutral athletes in individual sports. Recently, Russia hosted the BRICS Games — “an alternative to the Olympics”, as the state-run Belarusian media claimed — in Kazan.
Russia portrayed the Games as a magnificent international sporting event lasting 12 days. The official website of the competitions stated on June 16, 2024, that around 4,700 athletes from 90 countries had gathered there (as of June 16, 2024, the last day of the Games; the information on the number of participants and countries on the website changed during and after the Games). The same figures were announced by Belarusian state TV channels.
“The BRICS Games are officially open in Kazan. Nearly 5,000 athletes from almost 90 countries will compete for 387 sets of medals,” the news presenter announced on state-run TV channel Belarus-1 on June 12, 2024.
On June 16, 2024, another Belarusian pro-government TV channel ONT also spoke about 'clean sport' apart from politics:
“The BRICS Games are in full swing in the capital of Tatarstan. These major prestigious competitions could be compared to the Olympics. After all, the athlete roster is very strong and representative.”
The Weekly Top Fake team investigated the official BRICS website. In the 'Participating Teams' section, 90 countries were indeed listed. Each country's profile stated the number of participants, the sports they represented, and the medals they had won.
However, upon closer examination, we found that some countries were listed as participants, but had no athletes present. For example, Algeria. That fact did not prevent Algeria from being ranked 36th in the medals table.
We also discovered that only 68 countries participated in the Games, not 90 as stated on the website. Among the countries not recognized even by Belarus, were South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and the Republic of Serbia (an autonomous region in Bosnia and Herzegovina).
In the profiles of many countries, only a few athletes were listed. We counted them, and the total number was 2948, not 4751, as stated on the website. Almost half of them were from Russia, Belarus, and Uzbekistan. These countries sent the largest delegations. About 85% of the participants in the Games came from 15 countries. The remaining 53 countries sent a total of less than 500 people.
For comparison, the Olympics, which will begin in Paris at the end of July, aim to gather over 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries.