"It's just bestiality": the mother of the Russian gymnast Diaz about the change of sports citizenship

Fourteen-year-old gymnast from Moscow Nicole Rimarachin Diaz commented on the offer to play for the national team of Peru.

"This is a betrayal! I am very offended by this proposal, do I really not deserve to represent the country in which I was born? I've never lived in Peru (the girl's father is Peruvian), I don't know the culture and language of this country. I can't imagine how I can represent another country," the Russian Gymnastics Federation quoted Diaz as saying.

In turn, the gymnast's mother Olga Mishra stated categorically and emotionally:

"We have already been offered to participate in the World Junior Championship. They said, "Let's say your daughter becomes a world champion." But I don't need it. It is more important to me that my child is fighting honestly, that she has earned the right to train in the Russian national team. Even if she is only 14 years old, she is just starting her adult career. But starting your journey with betrayal is unacceptable. To step over yourself for the sake of some imaginary benefits is just bestiality."

According to Olga, she still does not believe that her daughter has the opportunity to train with Irina Viner.:

"It's really like a miracle for us. Nika really appreciates Irina Alexandrovna's attention and is afraid to let her down. We are with Nika, when the start is not very successful, we were always afraid that the coach would kick us out, but it turned out that she is one of the few who calls me and calms me down in such cases, calls Nicole over and explains calmly, professionally where she made a mistake, how to do it right and how to get better. It's amazing that Irina Alexandrovna has the time, desire and love for this."

But the 2014 world champion in rhythmic gymnastics as part of the Russian national team, Alexandra Semenova, plans to compete in international competitions for Armenia.

Semenova is twenty-six years old, she won the world championship in group exercises with three balls and two ribbons. There are two gold and one silver of the European championship in her collection.

"Alexandra is going to compete for Armenia, she is already quite an old athlete, and, of course, she really wants to participate in international competitions again. She also intends to continue performing at domestic competitions and hold competitions in Veliky Novgorod in her own name. Performances for Armenia will not interfere with this in any way and will not affect her activities to popularize rhythmic gymnastics in our country," the mother and coach of the athlete Victoria Tekel told TASS.

Moreover, fifty-eight ex-Russians performed very successfully at the Olympics in Paris, who managed to win 17 medals for their countries (6 gold, 3 silver and 8 bronze).

And if we are already getting used to the performance of our athletes in neutral individual status without tricolor, anthem and coat of arms for six painful years, then the transition of Russians under the flags of other states still causes a feeling of indignation and protest among fellow citizens.

They say, let's deprive the defectors of citizenship, take away their passports and anathematize them. It sounds right, but here I immediately remember our brilliant high jumper Maria Lasitskene. We remember that only by the fact of Russian citizenship, the IOC did not allow an outstanding athlete to attend two Olympics, which she would most likely have won.

And, thank God, that our Masha was allowed to Games in Tokyo, where she took the gold. But Rio de Janeiro and Paris is forever unhealed wounds.

Previously, as a rule, those who lost the competition in the Russian national team went under other people's banners, but today the trend is changing, and the leaders are already looking beyond the cordon.

And even then, the situation in international sports is only getting worse, the "bans" for our federations are being extended automatically now, and what the new IOC leadership will come up with, taking over the anti-Russian watch next spring, is known only in the underworld.

And if we are not allowed to attend the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, or forced to undergo humiliating checks in order to get to the tournament under a neutral flag and with a shameful tag, then our stars will go in search of a better life in foreign countries.

But personally, I will not condemn them. Although I am undoubtedly closer to the civic position of the young Muscovite Nicole and her wonderful mother.