Awards for Tokyo 2020 were also allocated at the Forum of Champions and Medal Winners, going to swimmer Evgeny Rylov and fencer Sofia Pozdnyakova.

Bolshunov was one of only three athletes to win five medals at Beijing 2022, including three golds, while Shcherbakova triumphed in the women's singles event.

Rylov won men's 100 metres and 200m backstroke golds at Tokyo 2020 and silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay at Tokyo 2020, while Pozdnyakova won women's individual and team sabre gold.

This year, Bolshunov and Rylov have sparked controversy for their actions in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Both attended a pro-war rally organised by Russian President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium in March.

In Rylov's case, this led to a nine-month ban imposed by the International Swimming Federation - although he could not have competed anyway due to Russian and Belarusian athletes being blocked from competitions due to the war in Ukraine - and Speedo terminating its sponsorship deal.

German glove manufacturer Kinetixx ended its deal with Bolshunov, who also won the most decorated current male athlete prize at the Forum.

The most decorated female athlete went to artistic swimmer Svetlana Romashina.

Russian cross-country skiing head coach Yuri Borodavko claimed that "politics" was likely to have dashed Bolshunov's hopes of success at the Association of National Olympic Committees Awards, with the best male athlete prize won by South Korean short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon.

Bolshunov has remained a high-profile critic of Russia and Belarus' exclusion from international sport, and recently said "people in the West must stop accusing us Russians of everything".

Borodavko and artistic swimming head coach Tatiana Pokrovskaya earned the best coach prizes for Beijing 2022 and Tokyo 2020 respectively at the ROC-organised Forum.

The men's 3x3 basketball and women's 4x5 kilometres relay teams earned awards for their silver and gold medal feats respectively, with the men's artistic gymnastics all-around team and taekwondo team from Tokyo 2020 among the other winners.

Russian athletes competed under the "neutral" ROC banner at Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 due to sanctions imposed on the country for a state-sponsored doping scandal.

The ROC placed fifth on the medals table at last year's Summer Olympics with 20 golds, and ninth at the Winter Games in Beijing with six golds.

Beijing 2022 proved to be the last major sporting event with Russian participation after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended the non-inclusion of its and Belarus' athletes following the war in Ukraine, although it has recently entertained a proposal for them to compete as neutrals in Asian qualifying events at Paris 2024.

In contrast to the International Paralympic Committee's recent suspension of the National Paralympic Committees of Russia and Belarus, the IOC has not taken direct action against the ROC or National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus since the invasion of Ukraine.

ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov was invited to the Olympic Summit in Lausanne earlier this month, and has also recently been re-elected to his role.

Pozdnyakov has been a critic of the Olympic Movement's response to the war in Ukraine, and has suggested that it is an "honourable duty" for Russian athletes to fight in the conflict.