Gymnast Ilya Kovtun, who won a silver medal for Ukraine at the 2024 Olympics, explained why he decided to change his sports citizenship to Croatian. He feels a duty to the Croatians, because they accepted him and gave him everything he needed.
He said this in an interview with the Croatian publication Glas Slavonije.
"I feel a moral obligation to the people in Osijek, to Vladimir, Mr. Pipunich. They accepted me here, I practically lived with them — I slept, trained and ate in the Sokol gym. When I won the Olympic medal, I had the feeling that the local people were more happy than I was in my homeland," Ilya explained.
He says he is trying to understand why this happened. He says that people in Ukraine have much more important concerns now. At the same time, he noted that there is no one specific reason why he decided to change his sports citizenship — there were many and they accumulated gradually, the decision was influenced not only by the war.
Ilya Kovtun admitted that on the first day after announcing his change of citizenship, he was a little sad because of the negative comments on Instagram. Later, he decided to ignore it, because he considers such a reaction to be quite understandable in a war situation — people in Ukraine have more serious problems, live in constant stress and because of this have become more aggressive. At the same time, many people supported him. He noted that he understands both critics and those who took his side.
He says that his family supported his decision. He also said that his father and sister have been living in Poland for a long time, and his mother will soon move there too.
When exactly will Kovtun receive citizenship?
Kovtun, as well as his coach, have already submitted documents to the Croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs to obtain Croatian citizenship. Earlier, the coach of the Croatian national team said that the gymnast should receive it through an expedited procedure. However, problems may arise due to the objections of Ukraine, which "will definitely not release him voluntarily".
Ilya cannot predict when he will receive permission to represent Croatia. Until all formalities are completed, he will not be able to compete in official tournaments for the country.
"I saw that the guys from the Croatian national team supported me, I thank them for that, although we havenʼt talked about it personally yet," said Ilya.
Now Kovtun says that there is no exact time frame, but most likely he will receive Croatian sports citizenship next year. Coach Vladimir Madžarević and Mr. Marko Pipunić are really doing everything possible to make everything happen faster.
"Itʼs hard to expect that all the documents will be completed in 2025, but, to be honest, Iʼm even happy with it, because the previous three years were very busy and exhausting. I had 25-28 competitions in a year, so now I can first of all recover from shoulder problems," the athlete said.
The athlete noted that, barring serious injuries, he plans to continue competing in the all-around for another eight years, or two Olympic cycles. He added that he has yet to become a world or Olympic champion, and that this remains his big dream. He also emphasized that his main goal is to become an all-around champion.
What preceded
At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the coach of the Croatian national team Vladimir Madžarevic invited Ukrainian athletes to come to the city of Osijek and prepare for the European Championship 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.
- 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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