Faced with difficulties in qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Russian male fencers compete in a domestic tournament attended by several peers from abroad. The event takes place after the Russian Olympic Committee said they had rejected the IOC's "proposed return format", set out to allow the country's athletes back into international competitions. On March 28, the IOC recommended the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes under several conditions, but did not comment on their presence at the 2024 Paris Games, for which the first qualifying events took place without Russian participants. Magamed Khalimbekov, who took first place at the competition in Moscow, says "you want to compete against other fencers abroad...but these are the current circumstances, so we survive." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES