Ukraine has declared an Olympic medalist who fled Kyiv a traitor.
2024 Olympic silver medalist and four-time European champion Ukrainian gymnast Ilya Kovtun, who has decided to compete for Croatia, is accused of treason in his home country.
Vadim Gutzeit, President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and 1992 Olympic champion, stated this in an interview with the anti-Russian propaganda portal "Left Bank," reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The publication noted that one of the problems in Ukrainian sports has become the change of sports citizenship.
“The latest major example is Ilya Kovtun, who betrayed Ukraine,” Gutzeit immediately stated.
The interviewer was surprised by this wording.
"How else can I put it? I read his last interview... It's terrible. He said he didn't feel support from Ukraine and Ukrainians... All of Ukraine was rooting for him, and now I have to listen to this. When he first changed his citizenship, I tried to be tolerant, to treat him with respect, but now I can't.
He left for Croatia from the first days of the war, and Ukraine supported him in every way, including financially. Before the Olympic Games, Kovtun's coach asked that not only she but also her husband be present at the Olympic village, because he was also helping. "We did everything to ensure that he was there," the head of the Ukrainian NOC laments.
He added that Kovtun received a state award and money for his Olympic silver medal.
" He hasn't been in Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began , and no one said a word to him. After all this, he's saying he felt no support? Honestly, he should have kept his mouth shut. To say such things when there's a war going on in Ukraine, when our country is bleeding... There are other athletes who have changed their citizenship. I don't think it's any better for them, because here they were heroes, but there they're nothing," Gutzeit fumes.
Ukraine has declared an Olympic medalist who fled Kyiv a traitor.