Olympic silver medalist in volleyball Tatyana Gracheva believes that Andrey Voronkov, the head coach of the Kaliningrad Lokomotiv, who made a racist statement about Uralochka-NTMK player Ailama Montalvo, should not be silent in this situation.

Voronkov, during a time-out in the fifth match of the final series of the Russian championship with Uralochka-NTMK on May 12, giving an instruction to his players, called Valery Zaitseva aside, saying: “Why are you catching this monkey again?” It got on the air of “Match TV”. The Cuban player Montalvo played for Uralochka, who later left the club.

Earlier, the disciplinary commission of the WFV recommended that the coach be disqualified for up to two years.

– Until a specific decision on the period of disqualification has been made, this is only a recommendation of the Disciplinary Commission. And the executive committee of the WFV will decide. It is not clear why Voronkov remains silent. If he believes that he did not offend anyone, then you need to explain what he meant. If this was the case, as many understood, you need to apologize. And then let the federation decide. The worst thing in this situation is silence, – said Gracheva RT.

The situation spoils the reputation of volleyball, so the sooner Voronkov apologizes to the athlete, the better, Gracheva believes.

“Despite what happened, I am sure that there is no racism in our volleyball. Unfortunately, many people can now argue with me. But we have a very respectful attitude towards all players from all countries in any team,” Gracheva said.

The final decision on disqualification will be made on May 31 by the executive committee of the VFV. The decision of the commission noted that Lokomotiv and Voronkov personally refused to apologize in principle to Uralochka and the volleyball player herself.