Games-Russia-born cyclist Zabelinskaya wins gold for Uzbekistan

Olga Zabelinskaya won gold for Uzbekistan in the women's individual time trial at the Asian Games on Tuesday, the latest Russia-born athlete to have topped the podium in Hangzhou. Zabelinskaya's Russia-born team mate Anna Prakaten won the rowing single skulls gold last week, two years after winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics while representing the Russian Olympic Committee.

Olga Zabelinskaya won gold for Uzbekistan in the women's individual time trial at the Asian Games on Tuesday, the latest Russia-born athlete to have topped the podium in Hangzhou.

Zabelinskaya's Russia-born team mate Anna Prakaten won the rowing single skulls gold last week, two years after winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics while representing the Russian Olympic Committee. The 43-year-old Zabelinskaya won two Olympic road cycling bronze medals at London 2012 and a silver at Rio 2016 while competing for Russia. She served an 18-month ban for doping between her Olympic appearances.

Zabelinskaya finished the 20km course nearly a minute ahead of Japan's Eri Yonamine and Kazakhstan's Rinata Sultanova. "Representing different teams is due to various reasons," said Zabelinskaya, who switched nationality to Uzbekistan in 2018.

"No matter if I represented Russia at the Olympic Games or Uzbekistan at the Asian Games, my goal has always been to win medals. I don’t pay much attention to the nationality. I just need to do my best.” Zabelinskaya will also line up for the women's road race on Wednesday and hopes to compete in the Paris Olympics next summer.

"It's like the final race of my career, the last big one," she said. "Maybe also the world championships. Depends on how I feel.” More than a hundred Russian athletes have changed their sports citizenship by joining foreign national teams, Russian Deputy Sports Minister Alexey Morozov said last month, according to Russian state-owned news agency TASS.

The International Olympic Committee is expected to discuss Russia's and Belarus' participation at the Paris Olympics at a session in Mumbai later this month. Russian and Belarusian athletes will compete as neutrals at the Paris Paralympics after the International Paralympic Committee voted against maintaining a full ban of the two countries, imposed after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special military operation.

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