Olympic volleyball champion Taras Khtey explained to how he perceives the exclusion of Russians from international competitions in all team sports.
On Friday, Khtey took part in the opening ceremony of the “Walk of Fame” exhibition, dedicated to team sports of the Russian company “Knowledge”, at the international exhibition “Russia” at VDNKh.
Russian volleyball teams and clubs continue to be suspended from international competitions due to the situation in Ukraine. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on December 8 that it would grant neutral status to Russian and Belarusian athletes who successfully qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics. However, recommendations for admission include ban on the participation of the Russian national team in team competitions.
— In December, the IOC announced the conditions for admitting Russian athletes to the Paris Olympics, and team sports, including volleyball, are not allowed at all. How did you feel about this decision?
– We were pushed into such a framework… We, of course, do not agree with this. We believe that sport should be outside of politics. Frankly, what is happening now is weak. The International Volleyball Federation has fallen very low in this regard. I would like to believe the best, but so far volleyball players and other athletes have suffered. Let’s hope that a country like Russia cannot be contained for long. I think that later the FIVB will be the first to ask us to participate in competitions. It’s one thing to compete against the Moroccans, Kenyans or Zimbabwe, and another to fight and win medals against teams like Russia. So I am convinced that the time will come when we will be recalled. This is why I would like to tell our future champions to prepare, work, try and believe in the best. There will definitely come a time when you have to go out and prove that Russia is a sporting power,” Htey told .
The Paris Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to August 11.
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.
