President of Russian Ski Racing Federation (FLGR) Elena Vyalbe believes that an open letter from an Olympic athletics champion Maria Lasitskene President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach will not help to change the attitude of the federations towards Russian athletes.
Earlier, published a letter from Lasitskene to Bach, in which it condemned the IOC chief for lacking the courage and dignity to remove restrictions on Russian athletes.
I don’t think that will help in any way. In any case, we are all well aware that everything will depend only on the position of the IOC. The fact that the IOC never does anything with its own hands is also clear to everyone. He does everything wrong with the hands of the international federations. Previous IOC appeals have been cleverly crafted. “We are not forcing you not to allow athletes, we strongly recommend you.” And the international federations immediately perceive this as a decree of action. Again, no one will benefit. Neither our competitors are athletic, nor are we.
People are doing their job well, they are training and they have to perform on the international stage for the public to be interested. When one of the leaders does not go to the start, the opponent is better, he will be on the podium. But sooner or later, people get tired of watching when the same country, the same three or four people hang out with each other and take the top four spots. It doesn’t matter if it’s Russia, Sweden or England – in any sport there must be competition to attract spectators, – RIA Novosti Sport quotes Vyalbe.
At the end of February, the IOC recommended to international sports federations not to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete due to the situation in Ukraine.
RIA Novosti Sport
Source : MatchTV
