The Swedish biathlete has been considered the main hater of Russian sports for many years, having begun to criticize our athletes long before political sanctions. Now Sebastian Samuelsson is infuriated by the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to admit Russian athletes to the 2026 Paralympics in Milan, as well as to restore the rights of the entire RCC. At the same time, the Swede only a couple of months ago tried to renounce his status as a Russophobe.

The story quickly grew old.

Swedish “love” for Russia

Samuelsson has long earned himself a certain reputation among Russian fans. From the very beginning of his career, he began to pose as a magistrate and criticized our biathlon and even specific athletes for doping. Moreover, Sebastian could not always clearly explain why Russians should not compete after disqualification, because they had already served their punishment and, according to all the rules, have the opportunity to compete.

For example, the Swede regularly said unpleasant things about Alexander Loginov, not wanting to go on the same ski track with him. And he was always annoyed when the Russian was ahead of him. And this happened regularly. Samuelsson didn’t even think about stopping, and after 2022 he got much more chances to criticize Russia. Although, it must be admitted, his statements globally in the media, on the contrary, have become even a little less frequent. Apparently, in the absence of our journalists and athletes at the World Cup stages, Sebastian lost a significant part of his audience and did not understand who he was addressing.

But the Swede, of course, could not ignore the IPC decision on Russian Paralympians. At the end of September this year, it became known that the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) had been fully restored to its rights, which meant the return of the flag and anthem, among other things. Then it turned out that not everything is so ideal, and in some federations work still needs to be done to actually admit Russians. However, the trend was obvious, and besides, ours will definitely be represented at the Paralympics in Milan next year and in considerable numbers.

Sebastian Samuelsson / Photo: © Kevin Voigt / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

He assured that he was not a Russophobe and deceived

Sebastian was literally thrown off balance by such IPC actions. In an interview with the Swedish publication Expressen, he burst out with his opinion on why all this is wrong and should be reconsidered.

– This all looks as strange as possible, I don’t understand it at all. One gets the feeling that at the Paralympics they are testing the boundaries of what is permitted and hoping to transfer this to the Olympics itself. They want to find out what the reaction will be. But in fact, nothing has changed in the world. I can say that if you do not adhere to the restrictions you set yourself, then everything loses its meaning,” said the Olympic champion.

It’s ironic that just a few months earlier, Samuelsson, in a conversation with another Swedish publication SVT, said that he was by no means a Russophobe and almost missed our biathletes.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to compete with Russian biathletes again, but in the current situation this is unthinkable. There is a prejudice that I hate Russians, but this is not true. “I want to compete with the best and I would be happy to compete with them,” SVT quotes Samuelsson as saying.

Such rhetoric did not last long. One trigger, and the whole world again saw the real Sebastian, for whom Russia still remains a red rag. Another thing is that it is unlikely that the Swede will be able to repeat such words to the faces of our biathletes when they return to the World Cup. However, at those moments the Russians will definitely have no time for Samuelsson and his attacks against them.