Russia's victory: Lithuanian athlete disqualified in Hungary for Russophobia

Lithuanian Cornelia Dudaite was suspended from performing at the Functional Fitness World Championships because of a T-shirt with the inscription: "make Russia small again" ("Make Russia small again"). This is reported by LRT.

The Functional Sports World Championship is taking place these days in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Dudaite dressed up in a T-shirt with an offensive inscription, expressing, as she herself formulated, her position on the permission granted to Russian athletes to start in this competition. The trick attracted the attention of the International Federation of Functional Sports (iF3), which, after a warning, suspended the Lithuanian from the competition.

"I had this T-shirt, the same as the president of Ukraine wore, I thought that if it was necessary to show our civic position, then I would show it. When we arrived in Hungary, congratulations appeared on social networks from the organizers themselves, how they congratulate the Russians, how happy they are with their participation. I found it wrong… This is my position, not the Lithuanian national team's. Later, I received an official letter saying that if I took off the T-shirt, deleted all the photos with them, I could stay to participate in the contest. I refused... and the guard took me out of the arena," the Russophobe told LRT.

Dudaite mentioned in her social media account that she intends to withdraw from the ranks of the Lithuanian Functional Sports Federation, because they did not support her impulse. However, later it was officially announced that the entire Lithuanian national team was withdrawing from the competition.

"The Functional Sports Federation of Lithuania has decided to refuse to participate in the World Championships in Budapest (Hungary) due to the negligent attitude of the organizers to the policy of the "neutral flag". At the World Championships, athletes were allowed to demonstrate the national symbols of the aggressor country - it was visible in the live broadcast, the name of the state was called." The negligence of the organizers, who ignore the policy of a neutral flag, is incompatible with our values, therefore the Lithuanian Functional Sports Federation recommended that the members of the national team refuse to participate in competitions," the federation said in a statement.

By the way, the World Functional Sports Championship — 2025 is to be held in Druskininkai, Lithuania.