Russian athletes will participate in the parade of national teams at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Koreas PyeongChang, Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) President Alexander Zhukov said on Friday.
"Russian athletes will take part in the opening ceremony of the Games in PyeongChang and they will participate in the parade of athletes under the Olympic flag," Zhukov said in an interview with Tass news agency.
Russian athletes will participate as neutrals after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended Russia for allegedly abetting doping of its athletes. The IOC accused Russia of systematic violations of anti-doping rules, particularly during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Earlier in the day, Anastasia Zadorina, the head of ZASPORT sports outfit design company, said that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved a new design of the Russian team's ceremonial uniform for the 2018 Olympics.
According to her, the initially designed uniform underwent some changes as "in line with the requirements, we took off the tricolour (the Russian national flag), the national emblem and added the required OAR emblem."
The 23rd Winter Games will take place in South Korea's PyeongChang between February 9 to 25, 2018.
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--IANS
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