She renounced her homeland for Poland. Tennis player from Russia begged for a European passport

Despite the aspirations of anti-Russian sports officials, there is no mass outflow of champions from Russia. Cases of change of citizenship are still isolated, and sometimes do not cause even the slightest pity.

Tennis player Valeria Olyanovskaya openly renounced Russia for the sake of life in another country. After receiving Polish citizenship, the athlete is ready to scrape every day before the authorities of the new country.

“I wanted to become Polish”

Olyanovskaya’s presence at a tournament in Poland caused a lot of noise in August. Local Russophobes were outraged by Valeria’s presence in the tournament bracket in memory of Lech and Maria Kaczynski. Even the Minister of Sports Kamil Bortnichuk, who does not go into his pocket for anti-Russian statements, had to come to the defense of the tennis player.

Such patronage of a high-ranking official is easily explained. Valeria was born in Moscow, but since the age of 16 she has been living in Poland with short breaks. She publicly declared her love for this country, and also spoke negatively about Russia.

Valeria left for Poland for a breakthrough in her career. The former coach of the famous Russian tennis player Nadezhda Petrova, Tomas Iwanski, who then lived in Lodz, agreed to help Olyanovskaya achieve results and support her financially. In six years, she managed to “break through” only to 564th place in the WTA rankings, but the lack of results did not affect Valeria’s love for Poland.

— I wanted to become Polish when I turned 18. It was here, and not in Russia, that I had hopes and prospects. Then I realized that this was an opportunity that I had no right to miss. People even ask my family, who remained in Moscow, why I did this. But they don’t attack my relatives, they’re just interested,” Sport.Fakt quotes Olyanovskaya as saying.

Valeria Olyanovskaya / Photo: © Mariusz Palczynski / Mpaimages.C / Keystone Press Agency / Global Look Press

“I will be grateful every day”

Obtaining the desired document took several years. Progress occurred after Valeria publicly condemned Russia’s policies and also sent an email to the WTA office with a request to remove the flag of our country from her profile.

The tennis player received her passport a few weeks ago and did not miss the first opportunity to thank the authorities of her new homeland. At a Polish club tournament, the athlete spoke about life in her new status.

— In Poland I feel great, even fantastic. If we compare what was and what is now, this is heaven and earth. I am very grateful to Poland for this opportunity and to everyone who helped me along the way. Every day I will be grateful that I have the opportunity to come to Kozerki and play,” Interia quoted Olyanovskaya as saying.

The tennis player also said that she is looking forward to joining the national team. True, with Valeria’s latest results it will be difficult to qualify for an invitation to the Polish team. Even at this local tournament, where the opposition, to put it mildly, is not the strongest, she lost in all three matches that were entrusted to her.