Cuban volleyball player Ailama Sese Montalvo, who played for the Uralochka-NTMK team, reacted to the scandalous situation in the Russian Championship final.
The publication took the moment when the head coach of Kaliningrad Lokomotiv Andrey Voronkov called the athlete from the Yekaterinburg team a “monkey”. During the break, Voronkov called out to a player from his team, “Why are you holding this monkey again?” said. They thought that in the “Uralochka” the words were said to Montalvo.
“Yesterday at a gala dinner with my teammates, coaches and club staff, I received a message from a fan who showed me the news that I had been a victim of racism in the championship finale, so I looked carefully at what was written and written there. The video where I can clearly hear what Lokomotiv head coach said about me.
I can only say that I personally have no problem with that, or even with the person who dared to disrespect me. I know who I am, I love my skin color and I’m proud to wear it on my skin. I’m not ashamed of it. I love people not because of skin color, nationality or anything else, but because they carry it in their hearts, they can convey it in everything they do. I was never hurt by the words he said to me, because the problem with this person is that he cannot control his insatiable ego, he needs to offend someone to reach a conclusion and that just shows few values \ he has and lack of professional ethics.
What more can I say? This is true. But if I respond to evil for evil, it does not make me a better person as a person, and also I do not lower myself to such a level, I am much higher than that. I am glad that despite being humiliated by this person, he could not lead me astray, prevent me from doing my job, playing games. I am happy for what I have achieved so far and for the person I am, for the moments when I perceive them as an opportunity for my personal growth instead of experiencing unpleasant feelings. I mentally beat him in that final, and I’m doing it again today after writing this letter, because I know my heart goes out when I don’t respond with a grudge against the person who sent me a grudge.
In conclusion, I would like to thank all the staff of the club, my teammates and coaches for their firm stance on this issue, as well as everyone who wrote me letters of support.” . (recognized as an extremist organization, activity on the territory of the Russian Federation is prohibited).
