Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina accused the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and Professional Tennis Players Association (ATP) of not supporting Ukrainian athletes sufficiently.
“Unfortunately, nothing has been done in tennis. They just play under a neutral flag. We did everything that depended on us, but in tennis they do not hear us.
Tennis organizations said that they are in favor of peace and that they want everyone to have equal rights. Ukrainians are not on equal terms. Initially we tried to talk to the Russian players but they were afraid to say anything, even if there was no support from them. We were surprised, ”says Svitolina www.tribuna.com.
Recall that at the end of February 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made an appeal to international sports federations and advised not to allow domestic and Belarusian athletes to participate in any competitions.
On January 25, the IOC announced that it is considering the possibility of allowing Russian athletes who do not support the conduct of a special operation on Ukrainian territory to participate in international competitions with a neutral status.
Former Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Dmitry Svishchev commented The decision of the USA team to refuse to participate in the women’s and men’s world boxing championships due to the admission of Russian athletes to compete with the flag and the anthem.