The top coach of Russia’s invincible synchronized swimming squad, Tatyana Pokrovskaya, says her athletes can sing the nationwide anthem whereas standing on the Olympic podium to remind everybody what nation they characterize.
The famend coach, who has led Russia to 5 consecutive Olympic titles, bemoaned the most recent choice by the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to ban Russian nationwide symbols for 2 years, whereas noting that this is not going to make the nationwide crew much less motivated to compete for medals.
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“This doesn’t imply that we’ll chill out and cease coaching. We are going to proceed preparing for the Olympic Video games the place we’ll combat for medals. After all, it’s insulting that we must compete with out the nationwide flag, however an important factor is to climb on prime of the Olympic podium the place we are able to sing the nationwide anthem ourselves,” Pokrovskaya mentioned.
“The choice shouldn’t be fairly clear to us, but when we’ve got been punished, they should have had causes for that. However we is not going to be upset, we’ll keep wholesome and can proceed working. There are usually not so many groups in our sport; everybody will know what nation we characterize.”
Russia’s synchronized swimmers, who’re planning to defend their Olympic crown subsequent 12 months in Tokyo, haven’t misplaced any main event for the reason that 2000 Sydney Video games, the place they claimed two gold medals: within the duet and crew occasions.
On Thursday, CAS introduced it had decreased Russia’s worldwide sports activities ban from 4 to 2 years on attraction, however the choice nonetheless means the Russian flag and anthem will likely be absent from the subsequent two editions of the Olympic Video games: Tokyo in the summertime of 2021, and the Winter Video games in Beijing in February 2022.
Russian athletes who’re cleared to look on the Olympics and any world championships can have to take action as neutrals, with out the nationwide flag and anthem.
