International matches helped Russian volleyball players to progress, without them the development of sport in the country was stopped, such an opinion was expressed in an interview with by the former head coach of the Russian national team Vladimir Alekno .
Russian volleyball teams and clubs have been suspended from international competitions due to the situation in Ukraine. Alekno in 2012 led the Russian team to victory at the Olympic Games.
— How do you assess the recommendations of the IOC on the admission of Russian athletes to international competitions in a neutral status?
“I don’t even want to talk about it. I don’t have the calm to react to that. You can say what you want, but these are the realities of today. We have to leave this situation for a while. Time will show us.
– But at the same time, team sports are prohibited from exercising by default. In other words, the Russian volleyball team no longer has a chance to play on the world stage.
What will make me change my mind? If it had changed anything, we’d been talking about it for 24 hours now. And so that’s just talking, it turns out. Of course, it is impossible not to agree that the development of our sport has been halted. We develop not only through domestic championship matches, but also through international matches. It helped our players progress.
– Last year the Volleyball World Championship was held without us, now the Nations League is underway. Are you interested in watching these tournaments without the Russian team?
“No, I’m not watching without our team, I’m not interested,” Alekno said in an interview with .
In March, the IOC announced recommendations on the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competitions. Recommendations include individual eligibility, status neutrality, banning team sports, and banning athletes associated with security forces or who have expressed support for the CWO.
Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
