Gymnast Ivan Kulyak He will remember for a long time the World Cup stage in Doha, where he won the bronze medal in the parallel bars. This debut was not only the first international tournament for Russian athletes, but also the first where everyone learned about the existence of Kulyak. Now no one will see him at competitions next year.
In Doha, Kulyak entered the awards ceremony with the letter Z on his chest. If it was an ordinary day, no one could fault it, but at that time Russia was already actively conducting a special operation in Ukraine. Meanwhile, this sign appeared on the special equipment of our army, which means “For Victory”. The International Federation (FIG) could not help but react. Moreover, he stood on the same pedestal as a Ukrainian Kulyak. Ilya Kovtun.
“This idea arose after seeing how Ukrainians communicate with us. They behaved so ugly during the competition, shouting “Glory to Ukraine”.
But the most frustrating thing was that they wanted to exclude us from the competition even though we had done nothing wrong to anyone. We came to perform, but we didn’t know until the very end whether we would be allowed to make it to the finals.” Kulyak told RT.
The Gymnastics Ethics Foundation (GEF) filed a disciplinary action against Kulyak. The disciplinary rules stated that an athlete could be warned, fined, or even disqualified for a period of 1 to 5 years. head coach of the national team Valentina Rodionenko, reported that they were preparing to ban Kulyak immediately when the hearings began. But our people were not afraid of him. Much worse for Rodionenko was that the gymnast could be disqualified for life.
The saddest thing did not happen. Kulyak escaped with only a one-year ban and will also have to return the medal he won in Doha. In the current realities, all Russian athletes did not lose anything sitting at home. The coaches were even luckier because they were never punished. This greatly surprised Rodionenko, who was waiting for sanctions. Igor Kalabushkin. However, the Federation (FSGR) was satisfied with the decision, although they did not exclude that they could appeal against Kulyak’s disqualification.
“We need to look at the text of the decision, there are things that we are not very happy about, then we will appeal.
But the acquittal of our two representatives suits us.
As for the terms and conditions of Kulyak’s disqualification, we’ll have to see. I’m not ruling out that we’re going to fight, but we may have to agree,” The president of the federation said Vasily Titov TASS.
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