Olympic medalist in swimming Kliment Kolesnikov told that he was not even going to try to obtain neutral status to participate in tournaments under the auspices of the International Swimming Federation (World Aquatics).
In September, World Aquatics published the criteria for admitting Russians to international competitions, based on the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee. The criteria excludes applications for relay races, limits applications to individual distances and prohibits communication with the media at the World Championships.
— We already spoke after World Aquatics published the admission criteria. A few months have passed. Did you have this whole story in mind?
“My attitude towards this has not changed. This is all abnormal.
— Didn’t you want to send an application and see the response?
– No. Even if you get all of this, what will it be? Comfort you? So what’s next?
— Participate in the World Championships in Doha.
– If only you consider yourself a person and you are ready to turn away from everyone, you are ready for everyone to turn away from you, then yes. But that’s not my story.
— In other sports, they start in a neutral position and return normally. Or do you have some kind of general team decision: I’m not going into neutral status?
“We haven’t met with the guys to discuss it. But in the team I think everyone is of the same opinion,” Kolesnikov told .
The 2024 FINA World Championships will take place in Doha in February.
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.
