Current:Home > ScamsUkrainian gymnast wins silver at world championships. Olympic spot is up in the air-DB Wealth Institute B2 Reviews & Ratings
Ukrainian gymnast wins silver at world championships. Olympic spot is up in the air
lotradecoin platform updates and news View Date:2024-12-25 17:20:55
ANTWERP, Belgium — Ukrainian gymnast Illia Kovtun has no say on whether Russian athletes will be allowed to be at next year’s Paris Olympics. Or, if they are, whether his country will let him and his fellow athletes compete.
All he can do is his job. And hope it will help convince Ukrainian officials that he and the rest of the Ukrainian team should go to the Paris Games no matter what. That their presence alone will be an act of defiance.
Kovtun won the silver in the men’s all-around at the world gymnastics championships Thursday night. It’s his second time on the podium in three years, but first since Russia invaded Ukraine without provocation and forced Kovtun to flee his homeland.
“It’s a hard time, so it’s a very special medal,” Kovtun said through a translator.
The International Olympic Committee has not said yet whether athletes from Russia or Belarus will be allowed in Paris or even when it will make a decision. But despite vehement objections from Ukraine, the IOC has said the individual sports federations should find “a pathway” for “individual neutral athletes” to return to competition. The International Gymnastics Federation has said it will do so beginning Jan. 1.
The issue has particular meaning to Kovtun. The week after Russia invaded Ukraine, Kovtun had to share a podium with a Russian athlete who wrote the pro-war “Z” symbol on his uniform. Ivan Kuliak was supposedly competing at the World Cup as a “neutral” athlete because Russia had been banned.
Kuliak was suspended for a year for the demonstration.
“It was a hard day because we didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know what will be with our country,” Kovtun said.
Though Kovtun said his family is safe, he has had to spend the last year in Croatia so he can continue training. Gymnastics is his love and his job. But it’s also the way he and his fellow athletes can show support for their country — and show Russia that no amount of bombs will destroy Ukraine’s spirit.
“My country has done all (it can) not to let Russian athletes go to Paris because they’re supporting the war. But unfortunately, we can’t do anything,” Kovtun said. “But we will do our best. We will work and we will place.”
veryGood! (12)
Related
- 51 Must-Try Stress Relief & Self-Care Products for National Relaxation Day (& National Wellness Month)
- Small plane crashed into residential Georgia neighborhood, killing pilot
- Yellen says threats to democracy risk US economic growth, an indirect jab at Trump
- Charles Barkley says he can become a 'free agent' if TNT loses NBA TV rights
- Wisconsin’s Evers urges federal judge not to make changes at youth prison in wake of counselor death
- Two months to count election ballots? California’s long tallies turn election day into weeks, months
- Jockeys Irving Moncada, Emmanuel Giles injured after falling off horses at Churchill Downs
- The first wrongful-death trial in Travis Scott concert deaths has been delayed
- Alabama lawyer accused of sexually assaulting handcuffed inmate, lawsuit says
- How the Dance Mom Cast Feels About Nia Sioux, Kenzie and Maddie Ziegler Skipping the Reunion
Ranking
- Police identify suspect in break-in of Trump campaign office in Virginia
- Biden stops in Charlotte during his NC trip to meet families of fallen law enforcement officers
- Brittney Griner 'Coming Home' interview shows not just her ordeal in Russia, but her humanity
- Small plane crashed into residential Georgia neighborhood, killing pilot
- What Conservation Coalitions Have Learned from an Aspen Tree
- Small plane crashed into residential Georgia neighborhood, killing pilot
- China highway collapse sends cars plunging, leaving at least 48 dead, dozens injured
- Miss Universe Buenos Aires Alejandra Rodríguez Makes History as the First 60-Year-Old to Win
Recommendation
-
Charlie Sheen’s Daughter Sami Sheen Undergoes Plastic Surgery for Droopy Nose
-
Battle to Prioritize Public Health over Oil Company Profits Heats Up
-
A murderous romance or a frame job? Things to know about Boston’s Karen Read murder trial
-
Biden says order must prevail on college campuses, but National Guard should not intervene in protests
-
How a small group of nuns in rural Kansas vex big companies with their investment activism
-
U.K. government shares video of first migrant detentions under controversial Rwanda plan, calls it a milestone
-
Biden Administration Awards Wyoming $30 Million From New ‘Solar for All’ Grant
-
Gangs in Haiti launch fresh attacks, days after a new prime minister is announced