The decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow only those Russian athletes who did not support the "special military operation" to participate in international tournaments in a neutral status has caused a strong reaction in the country. Famous athletes and journalists spoke out against this "discrimination".

In an interview with r-sports, some of them did not restrain themselves to literary limits and began to insult the IOC president and the entire Olympic Committee.

Yelena Välbe (President of the Russian Ski Racing Federation): "I am categorically against neutral status. We do not need their international competitions under such conditions!"

Alexander Tikhonov (four-time Olympic biathlon champion): "No one could have made a more headless decision. The IOC President Thomas Bach and the entire IOC Executive Committee are all headless. The current IOC leadership are sick people. Do they want to make our athletes traitors to the Motherland? They're idiots."

Sergey Karyakin (Crimean chess player who changed his Ukrainian citizenship to Russian): "This decision of the IOC is discrimination against our athletes. I have the feeling that the IOC is already trying to impose sanctions wherever it can and where it cannot."

Alexander Zhulin (famous Soviet figure skater, ex-husband of Tatiana Navka): "I want to spit on everyone and not go anywhere. I'm just so tired of them mocking us like some kind of guinea pigs."

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) President Stanislav Pozdnyakov became a laughingstock for Russian fans when he positively assessed the IOC verdict.

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