Natela Dzalamidze became Georgian to stay at Wimbledon.

Several months ago, the organizers of the Wimbledon tennis tournament announced that players hailing from either Russia or Belarus would not be permitted to play in this year’s games. This decision was made in response to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which Belarus is also a Russian supporter, both as a form of protest and to avoid the bad optics of Russian and Belarusian players at the games. The move has proven controversial, with athletes both from Russia and elsewhere claiming they are being unfairly discriminated against based on their nationality.

One Russian player, however, has chosen to take a different route toward remaining at Wimbledon: breaking ties with Russia entirely. Doubles specialist and no. 43 tennis player in the world Natela Dzalamidze is of Russian nationality, and as such was set to be barred from the games like the other Russian players. However, she found she could circumvent the ban by simply changing her official nationality. As such, Dzalamidze officially became Georgian instead, listing herself as such on the official WTA website.

Since Dzalamidze played under a neutral flag at the French Open rather than the Russian flag, she was able to freely change her representative nationality, a loophole that a Wimbledon spokesperson said they could not do anything about. “Player nationality, defined as the flag they play under at professional events, is an agreed process that is governed by the Tours and the ITF,” the spokesperson told The Times.