"We don't want to fall under attack": the Russian national team announces its refusal to participate in the Olympics of "NATO countries and their minions"

The head coach of the Russian national swimming team, Sergey Chepik, has pretended that he and his team are not interested in participating in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The coach of the national team called the competition in the French capital this summer a tournament of "NATO countries and their minions."

Cepik said this in a commentary to the propaganda TV channel Match TV. The 69-year-old repeated traditional Kremlin narratives about the politicization of sports and accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of violating the rights of Russians who have nothing to do at the Olympics.

"Have you read the Olympic Charter? All the points are violated there. What Games are we talking about? These are not the Olympic Games. The very essence has been replaced. It's a competition between NATO countries and their minions, in the language of the poster. If we are not invited to a birthday party, we do not go. If we don't want to fall under attack. What's the point?" said Chepik.

Earlier, two-time Olympic champion Yevgeny Rylov, who took part in the Z-concert in March 2022 in Luzhniki, announced his refusal to go to the 2024 Olympics. And former speed skater Svetlana Zhurova accused the IOC of humiliating Russians and treating them "like second-class citizens."

As OBOZ.UA reported, the day before it became known that Russian rowers refused to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. And the Governor of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov ordered athletes from the occupied peninsula to refuse to travel to the French capital.

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