"I'm surprised": Russian national team coach says she doesn't understand why Ukraine wants to "remove Russia" from world sport
Valentina Rodionenko, the head coach of the Russian national gymnastics team, criticised Ukrainian federations and organisations for opposing the admission of athletes from the Russian Federation to international competitions. She was sincerely surprised that our country is trying to isolate itself from the aggressors in every way possible.
Rodionenko said this in a commentary to the propaganda news agency RIA Novosti, responding to the words of Ukrainian Sports Minister Vadym Gutzeit about the impossibility of Russia's participation in the 2024 Olympics. The representative of the Russian Federation added a narrative about the greatness of its athletes with the pathos typical of her compatriots.
Valentina Rodionenko
Source: TASS
Russian athletes support Putin's policy
Source: "Kommersant"
"I am surprised that sports leaders in the Baltics, Poland, and Ukraine are fighting to remove Russia, writing various hate mail against us. What is their goal? They are trying to eliminate the rival, to kill the competition. But we know how the World Championships went last year. It was much weaker without our gymnasts. We have always dominated in Europe, and there was nothing to watch without us. Of course, we feel sorry for our guys, of course, we would like to reaffirm our Olympic claims. But we haven't given up, we haven't weakened anything, we continue to work," Rodionenko said.
Russia is isolated from world sport.
As a reminder, a year before the start of the 2024 Winter Olympics, on 26 July, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not send invitations to Russia and Belarus to compete. In addition, the media disclosed the IOC's plans to allow Russians to participate in the Games in the status of a refugee team.
Vadim Gutzeit, President of the NOC of Ukraine
Source: NOC of Ukraine
As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Vadym Gutzeit named the condition under which Ukraine is ready to boycott the 2024 Olympics. In addition, it became known that an anti-Russian coalition of 35 countries had been formed in the IOC.
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