Legendary Weightlifter Vlasov: Russia Should Withdraw From the Olympics
The international sports functionaries should be interested to have Russian sportsmen, not having them apologize for what everyone is doing
Yuri Vlasov is an Olympic champion (1960) and 4 times world champion. He is a former State Duma deputy and a well known writer.
Originally appeared at Life.ru. Translated by Julia Rakhmetova
According to him, until they change their attitude, Russian athletes should participate only in domestic contests. The legendary record-breaking Soviet weightlifter and Olympic champion, Yuri Vlasov is sure that the ban of Russian Weight Lifting Team would be political, in order to discredit not only Russian sport, but also the whole country. The former athlete stated that to Life.ru.
There’s a reason for all that. They are blackening Russia in every way to make the world hate us. Why?
“In order to liquidate our country without being afraid of the consequences,” - according to Vlasov.
According to him, performance-enhancing substances came to sports at the end of the sixties, from the US.
“And after almost half a century, the situation is the same: great results are impossible without medical help. Weightlifters in every country use them,”- Yuri Vlasov emphasizes, “and the unlucky ones pay for it. I don’t speak for everyone, but I think we shouldn’t try to curry favor with these federations and commissions. We have our pride, our results and our great history.
“I think we should not go to the Olympics, but withdraw from them. Until the situation changes, we should only participate in domestic contests, only competing with athletes of the countries who agree with us,” - Vlasov added.
The International Weight Lifting could exclude the Russian Weight Lifting Federation for a year. This will happen only if three or more Russian athletes test positive for prohibited substances, according to a recheck of doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
