Ukrainian champion does not want to hear that sport is out of politics
World Champion and 11-time European Champion in Artistic Swimming Marta Fedina spoke about her attitude towards Russian athletes after the start of the military aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.
“When you leave, everything shrinks inside, and you do it only with the thought of your country, of our soldiers, who are now on the front line and who are in a very difficult situation. They give us faith and the opportunity to live, and with our speech we tried to thank them a little – perhaps someone smiled and rejoiced when he heard that Ukraine had won. I also wanted to cheer them up somehow. In fact, it is very difficult to describe all these emotions in a few words, but speaking now, you feel completely different than before February 24th.
“How can we do without Russians at tournaments? Very well. I hate them and everyone hates them. And they have no place on the international stage because they don’t deserve it.”
“If they met on the street, they would pull out the patls. And at competitions, I didn’t want to share the same pool with them, be in the same place, and even more so compete. They don’t have the advantage to compete. They say sport is out of politics, but now sport is very politicized. And their country is depriving Ukrainian children of places to train, depriving them of their dreams. They destroy our swimming pools and gyms, destroy our military, among which there are many athletes. When the Russians take their lives, how can you even talk about solidarity and sports outside of politics.”
“I have never felt such rage and anger. I just want to forget about all the Russians. Unfortunately, this is not yet possible, but at least in sports terms. When we win, I would like to forget about the Russian Federation altogether, and now at least its athletes, so as not to hear anything and not know who they are. So that they would tinker with their super-country until the end of their lives, they held Solidarity Games. They wrote to us, they say, there were no strongest, so they scored gold awards. Well, ok, it wasn’t, it wasn’t. Compete in Russia.”
Recall that at the European Championships 2022 in Rome, Marta Fedina won two gold medals in individual competitions, winning in free and technical solo.
Source: Sportarena
