Three-time World Swimming Championship medalist Andrei Minakov said he was disappointed by the cancellation of the Friendship Games. “Match TV”.
“This year we had the Friendly Games. For their sake, many athletes refused to receive neutral status and go to the Olympics. The cancellation of the tournament is a big blow,” Minakov said.
Minakov noted that athletes who trained at the last Olympics had nothing left at the World Championships.
On July 16, President of the Russian Weightlifting Federation Maxim Agapitov announced that the Friendship Games have been postponed to 2025.
Russia created the Friendship Games as an alternative to the Olympic Games. The first Friendship Games were scheduled to be held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg from September 15 to 29, 2024. The initiator and coordinator of the Friendship Games is the International Friendship Association (IFA). On June 7, the general director of the organizing committee of the Friendship Games, Alexey Sorokin, confirmed the information that the event would be postponed.
Previously, swimmer Yulia Efimova statedMany were disrupted by the postponement of the Friendship Games.