Olympic champion Vasiliev called swimmer Kirpichnikova a traitor who abandoned her mother Russia.

Russia is the mother and the swimmer Anastasia Kirpichnikova abandoned it in difficult times and started competing for the French team, the two-time Olympic biathlon champion told . Dmitri Vassiliev .

Kirpichnikova became second in the 1,500-meter freestyle at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. In March of this year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the change of Kirpichnikova’s sports citizenship from Russian to French; the athlete had already made her debut at the 2023 French Championships.

“If our state had not been so illegally suspended from international competitions, I would have been calm about Kirpichnikova joining the French national team and winning an Olympic medal with it. But our state is in a difficult situation today. For every citizen born on the territory of Russia, Russia is his own mother. And when you leave your mother in difficult times and start playing for France, it is comparable to treason,” Vasiliev told .

Kirpichnikova, 24, was born in Asbest (Sverdlovsk region).

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