The President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine Vadym Hutzait commented on the fact that Ukrainian athlete, silver medalist of the 2024 Olympic Games Ilya Kovtun wants to change his Ukrainian sports citizenship to Croatian. He says that he was not aware of the gymnastʼs decision and that for him such a decision is unacceptable.
Hutzait told Tribuna.com about this.
"And when athletes change their citizenship, well, they donʼt treat it very well in life. And during war, I think itʼs generally an unkind act, if itʼs really like that. Because it only appeared in the press, we donʼt know if itʼs real or not," said the NOC president.
According to him, the athlete did not get in touch, there was a conversation only with his coach Irina Horbacheva. Hutzait emphasized that they offered all the conditions and were ready to go to a meeting. The point is that no one forbade the athlete to train abroad, and in Ukraine they offered to improve the conditions in Koncha-Zaspa at the Olympic base.
NOC President stressed that the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation does have "serious and specific" problems with Stella Zakharovaʼs
The day before, Honored Coach of Ukraine Hennady Sartinsky said that Ilyaʼs coach Iryna stated that she wants a change of power in gymnastics and to receive the position of vice-president of the Gymnastics Federation. In response, Hutzait said that this was the first time he had heard of this.
"If it is true that she wants to become vice president of the Federation, we will give her the opportunity to become vice president of the Federation, and tomorrow she will say: ʼI want to be presidentʼ," he emphasized.
According to him, if she and her athlete want to change their citizenship, they do not want to be Ukrainians.
What preceded
Ukrainian gymnast Ilya Kovtun has decided to change his sports citizenship — he will represent Croatia, said the coach of the Croatian national team Vladimir Madžarevic.
At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Madžarevic invited Ukrainian athletes to come to the city of Osijek and prepare for the European Championships at the local sports center.
The idea was for the Ukrainians to stay there for two months. However, Kovtun, along with coach Iryna Horbacheva, decided to stay in the city and have been living and training there for almost three years.
Kovtun, as well as his coach, have already submitted documents to the Croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs to obtain Croatian citizenship. The gymnast is expected to receive it through an expedited procedure.
After that, it will be necessary to submit documents to the International Gymnastics Organization. The Croatian coach believes that there may be problems due to the resistance of Ukraine, which "will definitely not let him go voluntarily". There is a possibility that because of this, the athlete will go into quarantine for a year or take a break.
- Ilya Kovtun is 21 years old, he is originally from Cherkasy. He is a multiple European champion among juniors. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, he won silver in the uneven bars.
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