Olympic champion Pereira: “For me, Karakurt’s behavior is unacceptable – she makes indecent movements towards her opponent”

Olympic champion and Brazilian national team volleyball player Natalia Pereira told that the behavior of Turkish volleyball player Ebrar Karakurt of Lokomotiv Kaliningrad, who makes indecent movements towards his opponent, seems unacceptable to him.

On Sunday, Dynamo lost to Lokomotiv with a score of 1:3 in the fifth match of the Russian Championship semi-final series. The score of the series became 3-2 in favor of the Kaliningrad team, which reached the final. After the winning point, Karakurt dropped to her knees in front of the net and shouted loudly at her opponents who were standing close to her.

— How do you evaluate the behavior of Lokomotiv players, in particular Ebrard Karakurt, during the last match against Dynamo? Part of the public considered this an aggression and provocation, which the judges did not put an end to.

– This behavior of Karakurt started a long time ago, returning from national team matches. For me, as a professional athlete, this is unacceptable. I always give examples from other sports, like tennis. I have never seen Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer make disrespectful remarks towards their opponents because they know they will be punished for it. So for me it’s the same thing.

Volleyball players are always polite, in matches you are overwhelmed with emotions, but you try to convey them to your team in a positive way, rather than negatively rejecting them on the other side. But with Ebrard, it’s quite the opposite. When she blocks or scores a goal, she shouts very loudly, makes obscene movements with her arms and body towards the opponent – all this seems disrespectful to the opponent. This seems like a disconnect with the spirit of the game and the mutual respect of professionals on the field. This is not at all what we were taught in sport.

We are all professional athletes and must be an example for young people, for those who watch us and support us. We need to show people what sport has taught us. For me personally, it’s a question of respect. Today you win, tomorrow you lose. We never know what the next day has in store for us, so for me sport is about respecting yourself, your partners and your opponents. This is not just about sports, it should be about everyday life.

— Do you understand the response of Natalia Goncharova, who succumbed for the first time to provocation?

“In my opinion, what Goncharova did is that everyone wants to respond to such a person, but not everyone is capable of this. And this is not a provocation on Natasha’s part, but an emotional response to Karakurt’s gestures and actions during all our games.

I fully support Natasha, she is my teammate. She did nothing wrong, because Karakurt did much worse things during our matches, which, in principle, contradicts the spirit of volleyball and sport in general. And such unsportsmanlike behavior must stop.

— Did you communicate with Karakurt after the match?

— After the match, during the handshake at the net, I wanted to explain to him calmly, I was not hostile. I told him: “You should be more respectful of people, because your behavior is not worthy of a true professional and no one considers it appropriate. I respect you as a player, as a person, I think you are a great player, but the way you behave on the pitch is unacceptable, you need to be more respectful. I congratulated her on her good match, for reaching the final, and then left.

I tried to be polite, even though she wasn’t. Yes, we are not teammates, but we are all athletes and we do the same thing. And I repeat once again, the main thing for me is respect. I don’t support her behavior and I hope there is someone who can explain this to her and she will listen. Because such behavior does not present her as an athlete in the eyes of other athletes and fans,” Pereira told .