Russian athletes lack state symbols at international competitions, but everyone understands which country they represent, despite their neutral status, Andrey Morozov, coach of the Chelyabinsk region judo team, told .
The representative of the Chelyabinsk region, Eva Ognivova, won the category up to 70 kilograms and twice became the winner of the Anatoly Rakhlin Cup, which was held in St. Petersburg on June 3-4. Over a thousand under-18 athletes from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Serbia, Greece, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan took part in the competition. The sets were played in 17 weight categories: nine for boys and eight for girls.
– Does Eva have the prospect of accessing international competitions? Yet judo is one of the few sports where the Russians have not been canceled.
– Let’s say that in August we planned the CIS Games in Belarus. We will play there when we are 18 years old. In part, this can also be attributed to international tournaments. It is possible that there are foreign teams. But we note that in St. Petersburg there was a good team for foreign teams. And I don’t want to guess anything more.
Of course, we are interested in international competitions. And we do everything to get there, we work. We are trying to raise the bar.
– Can Eva go to the Olympics?
Paris next year. Reality wants to be seen. As much as we would like, there are objective reasons why we may not go. We are working, but no one knows how circumstances will develop. Our task is to show the struggle and the result, and our perspectives are already formed from these results. But we are looking at the 2028 Games, of course. We are interested.
– Does it somehow put pressure on you that you now have to play, if you do, then without a flag or an anthem?
– I mean Eve and I are great patriots. We love and are proud of our country. Yes, maybe there is not enough flag and anthem, but no matter how much they want to blur it with some kind of neutral status, if Russian athletes win, everyone sees it and known. No matter how hard they try to stick a neutral flag, everyone knows the Russians are winning. It is an ineffective pressure element on us. But the circumstances are like that, we don’t dictate them,” Morozov told .
The International Judo Federation (IJF) has allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in tournaments under the auspices of the organization as individual neutral athletes.
Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
