Ilya Ivanyuk, the winner of the World and European high jump championships, will not consider it a big loss if he is unable to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The 30-year-old athlete, who has never taken part in the main events of the quadrennial in his career, called the competition uninteresting.

Ivanyuk said this in an interview with the propaganda TV channel Match TV. The two-time Russian champion added that he does not think about whether the representatives of the aggressor country will be allowed to participate in the tournament in the French capital next summer, and noted that "everything is great here, we have a great country".

"Whatever happens, happens. If it does, I will be ready for it. If not, it's a small loss. We have been to these Olympics, there is nothing interesting there. It just didn't go well for me there. Right before the Olympics, I got injured and was very upset about it. I thought that next time I would go to Paris, perform there, rehabilitate myself. And now I think: "It's okay. It is what it is. What did I not see there? It's not worse here. If you look at the whole picture, we live well here. We live well, everything is great, we have a great country, I like everything," Ivanyuk said.

As a reminder, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that federations suspend Russian athletes who are related to the Russian army and law enforcement agencies, as well as team sports.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the IOC refused to hold additional qualifying tournaments for the Olympic Games in Paris so that Russians who had previously been returned to international competitions could compete for tickets to the competition.

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