“I don’t think any of our athletes will sign documents against their country” – Verbov on IOC recommendations

Double Olympic medalist, head coach of Kazan Zenit volleyball club Alexei Verbov do not think that any of the Russian athletes will accept the conditions International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sign documents against his country. The specialist said so in an interview with .

In March 2023, the IOC Executive Committee recommended that international federations, if Russians are allowed to start, do so individually, in a neutral status, without participating in team events, and also exclude the participation of athletes associated with the forces. order and expressing support for the SVO.

– What do you think of the latest IOC recommendations on the admission of Russians?

“The answer lies in this question. We have too much to do. At the same time, they immediately cut off all chances of my sport. I don’t think any of our athletes will sign documents against their country. It’s just kind of nonsense, an inadequate story. I understand they (the IOC) kind of want to whitewash themselves, saying we let you in, and then you make your own decision, it’s your choice. All this history, apparently, will lead to the fact that we ourselves will refuse to talk about all these many conditions that the IOC has now put forward. If everyone says sport is out of politics, then why is sport now dragged into this story?

“And athletes suffer because of politics.

– It is a sin to say now that the athletes suffer. Turn your head and see the real difficulties and horrors. And it’s not about us. The problem is that, for some reason, political decisions are transferred to sport. At the same time, it has always been said that the mission of sport and the Olympic movement is to unite people, Verbov said in an interview with .

On May 25, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), Stanislav Pozdnyakov, said that the members of the executive committee of the organization had expressed a unified position on the inadmissibility of Russian athletes signing any declarations or other declarations of a political nature. which is contrary to the legislation of the Russian Federation.