Alexander Zhulin: “Everyone is playing against us, and they all seem to enjoy it and benefit from it. Now you see countries like Israel being allowed to do whatever they want, and no one even raises their voice to impose any sanctions on them.”
Alexander Zhulin condemns exclusion of Russian skaters from Olympic Qualifiers
original source: Sport-Express
Alexander Zhulin criticized the decision to exclude some Russian figure skaters from the 2026 Olympic qualifying competitiont, calling it overly politicized and lamenting the lack of transparency behind such rulings. Here’s a translation of his comments.
The event is set to take place in Beijing from September 19 to 21, featuring Russian singles skaters Adeliia Petrosian and Petr Gumennik, but pairs and ice dance teams were not granted permission to compete.
“I was really hoping that Sasha Stepanova and Ivan Bukin would make it to the Olympic qualifiers, but for some unknown reasons, that didn’t happen. And we’ll never be told why. The same goes for Mishina and Galliamov. I feel terrible about this.
In my opinion, politicizing sports and the Olympics is a disaster. This is a horrible decision because, in the past, even wars were halted during the Olympics. Now you see countries like Israel being allowed to do whatever they want, and no one even raises their voice to impose any restrictions or sanctions on them. Everything’s just fine for them.
This is a one-sided story. Everyone is playing against us, and they all seem to enjoy it and benefit from it. I can’t wait for this madness to end so we can compete as normal, civilized people,” said Zhulin.
Related topics: Alexander Zhulin
I mean… the “reason” is the war in Ukraine, but everyone knows the REASON is the cheating and the doping, and the complete refusal to take responsibility or apologize or to just stop state sponsored doping.