“Does it make sense that the best tennis players leave? All are patriots, no one has spoken out anywhere, has not let us down.” – Tarpishchev

The best Russian tennis players have no reason to change their citizenship, they behave like true patriots, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), told . Shamil Tarpishchev .

On Wednesday, the IOC approved the change of sports citizenship of Greco-Roman wrestler Georgy Tibilov, cyclist Valeria Lyubimova and cyclist Mikhail Yakovlev without the approval of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and without the standard three-year quarantine. The President of the Republic of China, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, said that these actions of the IOC cannot be called anything other than arbitrary and lawless.

— Can’t the IOC’s decision push our athletes to change their sporting citizenship?

– No. In tennis, those who trained with us have not left. Someone could try: many are convinced. If we take the practice of the last three years, no one left, everyone played. Do you know how many people played abroad this year? 951 and no one left. And what is the point for the best tennis players to leave? I believe that in general, everyone is patriotic, because no one has spoken out anywhere or let us down.

— Aren’t they obliged to sign declarations?

“The ATP and WTA tennis players’ union has drawn up regulations that are harmful from that side, not ours. Just remember Wimbledon. This is an indicator of the opinion of athletes,” Tarpischev told .

In October, the IOC Executive Committee suspended the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in the organization due to the inclusion of the Olympic councils of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in the ROCK. It was reported that the IOC reserves the right to decide on the admission of individual Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in neutral status.