The second racket of Ukraine in doubles Oleg Prikhodko opposed the condemnation of Russian athletes. Interview of Ukrainian tennis player on Friday, March 3, published portal BTU (“Great Tennis of Ukraine”).
The athlete expressed his opinion about the removal of athletes from Belarus and the Russian Federation from the Olympics, saying that sport should unite people, and not vice versa.
“As an athlete, I don’t understand this. I understand that for all the guys this is a dream to which they have been going all their lives, ”said the tennis player.
Prikhodko stressed that athletes should be given a chance to realize themselves, because for most of them the Olympics will be the only one in their lives.
“I just put myself in their place, and I would not want to be removed from the most important event that I have been going to all my life,” the athlete said.
During an interview, Oleg Prikhodko told how he learned about the start of a special operation in Ukraine on February 24 last year. Then the tennis player participated in a tournament in the Dominican Republic.
“The first reaction was surprise and incomprehension of what will happen next. Then came fear and awareness of the horror of what was happening,” says Prikhodko.
However, in April-May last year, the Ukrainian athlete was paired with Russian Yan Bondarevsky.
“I played a couple with a Russian, because he is my friend. And I played a couple with my friend – nationality does not matter to me. In my opinion, a person should be judged for his actions, and not for his nationality, ”the tennis player explains the act.
Prikhodko noted that he has many friends from Russia and Belarus, and his girlfriend is from Russia.
“Therefore, I don’t think that I did some kind of terrible act,” the athlete says.
Oleg Prikhodko said that the FTU (Tennis Federation of Ukraine) recommended that he not play with the Russian. But the athlete said that he did as he saw fit.
“I did not blindly follow the policy of the party. In general, I believe that such a condemnation of athletes only inflames the conflict more, ”the tennis player answered the portal.
Earlier in the day, it was reported that the Ukrainian Football Association (UAF) criticized Joma, which is the technical sponsor of the Ukrainian national football team, for the fact that Zenit St. Petersburg used the company’s logo on their uniforms.
