MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Russia is capable of holding alternative sports events to replace various global competitions if necessary, but there is no alternative to the Olympic Games, Russia’s Olympic medalist Kliment Kolesnikov told TASS on Thursday.
"I believe it is almost impossible to think of an alternative to them [the Olympic Games] and I don’t see how it can be organized," Kolesnikov said in an interview with TASS.
"I came to this conclusion having been there once, having seen it all and felt what it was all about. I have no clue at all how such global competitions can be replaced with something else," he continued.
"It is a different issue that the current situation is being overdramatized in regard to the Olympic Games. For me personally, they [the Olympics] are still number one for fulfilling athletic ambitions," Kolesnikov stated.
He also stated that: "Athletes from Russia and Belarus could have already returned to the global arena if the decision was up to foreign athletes instead of politicians or sports officials."
"If a meeting [with foreign athletes] took place, it would have been much easier - everything would have been decided directly by popular vote of the athletes," he continued. "This is how it was during the Swimming League round table discussions when athletes participated in the discussion of various issues."
"It’s cool when the athletes themselves can bring up topics they care about and discuss them," Kolesnikov said.
"I want to believe that 80% of the athletes that I have gotten to know since 2014 are on good terms with me and are not fake friends," Kolesnikov said, adding that he was in contact with many foreign athletes who wish to see Russians back on the global sports stage.
The swimmer said that "the current situation does not take into account what an athlete wants."
"We have only one goal, just to swim, but others are trying to get something out of it. Nothing depends on us, unfortunately, in this regard," Kolesnikov added.
In March 2022, World Aquatics (FINA until December 2022) ruled to bar Russia and Belarus from FINA’s upcoming international swimming competitions.
At its session on January 25, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to allow individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Athletes from the countries in question should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status.
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sporting events.
Russian swimmer Kolesnikov
At the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Kolesnikov, 22, took home the silver and bronze medals in the 100-meter backstroke and 100-meter freestyle events respectively.
He is also a six-time world champion in short-course competitions in addition to his one silver and two bronze medals at the 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championships in South Korea’s Gwangju.