110m hurdles world champion Sergei Shubenkov in an interview with , he said that the Ukrainian athlete Olga Saladukha criticizing Russian athletes, for a long time could not go to her native Donetsk, but after becoming a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, she changed her mind about the situation in Donbass.
– Lasitskene recently said in an interview that she wrote letters to Ukrainian athletes, communicated with them online. Did you have such a desire?
– Not. In principle, I communicate very little with other athletes, I hardly communicate. All my communications were reduced to “hello hello!” in international competitions. Perhaps after the competition they once came together in a big company. And to write to someone, ask how you are, track the results, in my case, these are few.
– Who?
— For example, runner Ramil Guliyev from Turkey. The Jamaican Hunsle Parchment wrote to me at one time, and I to him, but it wasn’t in recent years. Alina Talay from Belarus, a few people from Ukraine, and that’s it. It happened to me from the beginning of my sporting career that I wanted to make friends outside of sport.
– Ukrainian athlete Olga Saladukha told how Ukraine sought to withdraw Russia from international competitions. According to her, after the recommendation of the IOC, the Ukrainian sports federations wrote to the international federations that the Ukrainians would not participate in tournaments where there would be Russians. That is to say, they would have succeeded in eliminating the Russian teams by blackmail. What is your opinion on this Saladukhi statement?
– So you asked friends from the world of athletics. Olga Saladukha was such an athlete with whom I communicated a little more than with others. We can say that he was even friends with her, including my coach who communicated well with her. She was a great athlete.
As for Saladukhi’s statement, she knocked on the open door. Many international federations had already risen up against us. I don’t understand exactly what its merit is. She wants to claim something, well, good luck. Do you know which city Saladukh is from?
“Russian?”
– Not. Ukraine considers this city as its own.
“From Donetsk?”
– Right. She is from Donetsk. In 2014, she was unable to return home for several months, and I remember this situation well. After that, Olga arose new career prospects in the form of a seat as a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada. As soon as these prospects presented themselves, she began to describe in a different way all this bad situation that had happened to her. She could not return home to Donetsk, then there was nowhere to return. As far as you know, professional athletes are not the poorest, and she got a good job in Kyiv. Her opinion on the whole situation in the Donbass changed, and she got a seat in the Rada. Well, now, being in an assistant position, nothing else can be expected from her.
“Are you offended that Saladukha has changed so much?”
“On the one hand everything is clear, on the other it’s a bit insulting,” Shubenkov told .
Source : MatchTV
