"I don't want to waste my energy": Russian rival Maguchikh answers the question whether she will "compete" with the Ukrainian at the 2024 Olympics

Russian high jumper Maria Lasitskene will not compete in absentia with athletes competing at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The 31-year-old athlete, who became the Tokyo 2020 champion ahead of Yaroslav Maguchykh, had previously withdrawn from competing in the French capital.

Lasitskene said this in an interview with the propaganda TV channel Match TV. At the same time, the Russian changed her categorical rhetoric and suggested that she would follow the performances of Maguchikh, Yulia Levchenko, Iryna Gerashchenko, and representatives of other countries in the high jump sector.

"In terms of comparisons. I don't think I'm going to compare. It's useless. But maybe this is my mood only now. In 2016, when we also missed the Olympic Games, it was different. I knew that two meters was the best result of the season. It was a different situation, different thoughts. Now is a different time, with different results. I don't want to waste my energy on this, I want to jump, to show the result - that's what I'm ready for today," Lasitskene said.

She forgot to mention that the Ukrainian woman broke a 37-year-old record and rewrote history. Earlier, the Russian high jumper complained that she was forced to wear equipment with holes in it due to sanctions against Russia. In addition, Lasitskene broke her silence about the war in Ukraine only in early August. She called it her mistake.

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