"Discrimination: Russian Olympic champion complains that the IOC is forcing Russia to "crawl on its knees" in order to participate in the 2024 Games

Vladimir Salnikov, president of the All-Russian Swimming Federation (FFF), called the conditions of admission of athletes from Russia to international competitions discriminatory. The four-time Olympic champion complained that his compatriots were required to exclude any association with the regime of Vladimir Putin.

Salnikov said this in an interview with the propaganda TV channel Match TV. He gave away the traditional Kremlin stamps about sports outside politics, and in addition, he described the demand from athletes from the aggressor country not to support the war in Ukraine with the words "they say you have to crawl on your knees and something else.

"The Olympics are really the purpose of life, that's what unites. Everything is clearly and precisely spelled out in the charter. No discrimination is stipulated there. And when they say that you have to crawl on your knees and something else - black and white reads differently. Sometimes I catch myself saying: no matter what you say, nothing changes. But you don't have to stop. We always have to protect our interests and talk about it. We are now faced with the fact that we are asked to come to the festival almost with a number on the back, so that there is no association," said Salnikov.

Earlier, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), called the criteria for admitting athletes from an aggressor country to international competitions "unacceptable and illegitimate.

Recall that the IOC recommended that federations suspend from competitions Russian athletes related to the Russian army and security forces, as well as team sports.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, the president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RHF) Vladislav Tretiak demanded the return of the aggressor country to international competitions, as "sport is an ambassador for peace."

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