Basketball
At the European Championships, the Russian anthem was desecrated. The spectators wept with grief
A terrible mistake by the organizers against the backdrop of a national tragedy.
The Russian anthem has been confused more than once at international competitions. Sometimes they included “The Indestructible Union…”, sometimes even Glinka’s “Patriotic Song”, which was a symbol of the country for only a short time on a historical scale. However, an incident that happened once at the European Basketball Championship stands out.
The organizers of the competition not only showed complete ignorance and unprofessionalism, but also insulted the Russians against the backdrop of a terrible tragedy that shook our country.
DJ with Russian nickname
The 2011 European Basketball Championship was held in Lithuania, whose team was traditionally considered one of the main contenders for the title. The same could be said about the Russian team, which regularly competes for medals at the European championship.
And indeed: our team easily passed the preliminary round, taking first place in the group and never losing. At the second group stage, everything went no less smoothly for our team, although the opponents were already more serious – for example, Greece. But here, too, Russia won all the matches. However, one of them was remembered not only for the excellent play of our team, but also for a very annoying pre-game episode.
Before the Russia-Finland match, players from both teams traditionally lined up on the court to hear the anthems of their countries. However, instead of the Russian anthem, a completely random melody suddenly began to play. The DJ, although going by the Russian nickname Mamanya, seemed to have no idea what he should include. On his second try, he also failed to guess the melody. Only for the third time did the correct Russian anthem play.
Surprisingly, DJ Mamanya missed the mark with the Finnish anthem at first. However, this time it only took him one try to correct himself. It’s unlikely that he would ever work in such important matches after that.
Insult on the day of tragedy
Everything would be fine, but the would-be DJ chose the worst day to show his ignorance. The desecration of the Russian anthem, which this guy allowed himself, happened when the whole country was mourning the tragedy with the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv – a plane carrying a hockey team crashed, almost everyone died.
Our basketball players came to the match with mourning ribbons. Some of them, for example, Andrei Vorontsevich, could not hold back their tears. While Mamanya continued to bring the situation to the point of black absurdity, the fans in the stands also cried, holding Russian flags in their hands. Some of them actively whistled at the incompetence.
Fortunately, this terrible attitude of the organizers did not affect the mood of our basketball players. The Russian team beat the Finns, and subsequently the rest of the group, and reached the playoffs. There our team reached the semi-finals, where they lost to the French. In the match for third place, David Blatt’s team defeated the Macedonians and took bronze. And, of course, the Spaniards became champions.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has been writing for a news website since 2015. My work primarily focuses on sports news, but I have also written about other topics such as technology and the arts. I have an extensive background in journalism, having worked as a reporter for a local newspaper before moving to a news website.