Gymnast Ilya Kovtun may start representing Croatia instead of Ukraine.
Silver medalist of the 2024 Paris Olympics in artistic gymnastics Ilya Kovtun is considering changing his sports citizenship.
As reported by Tribuna.com, the 21-year-old Ukrainian gymnast and his personal coach Irina Gorbacheva received an offer from Croatia. The final decision will be made before the end of this year.
It is noted that Kovtun and Gorbacheva spent the entire 2024 preparing for the competition in Croatia. The athlete did not return to Ukraine after the Olympics in Paris.
After this information was made public, Gorbacheva commented on the situation with Kovtun's possible change of sports citizenship under a post on the Shcherbakov Telegram channel.
“1. The information is true, but unreliable…
2. If artistic gymnastics is “sick”, then it must either be treated or isolated…
3. Betrayal is all the circles of hell that we have been through and are going through…
Thank you for paying attention to us when there is silver at the 2024 Olympics, and before that, for some reason, not everyone was very interested in who would forgive what and to whom… How are we holding on, what psychological, moral, physical, financial, etc. resources do we have to hold on.
P.s. The official and final information will be at the end of 2024 with all the specific clear explanations,” Gorbacheva wrote.
Gorbacheva also confirmed that Ilya is considering the option of changing his sports citizenship in a comment for Suspilne Sport.
“There are thoughts, we talked about this with the president of the federation, the head coach. There are thoughts, we have been going through this for more than one day, but for the last few years. There are thoughts about this, but everything will be decided and finally said later. Everything needs to be weighed and agreed upon.
Does the Ukrainian federation have a chance to keep Kovtun? Honestly, it is very difficult because of what is happening in our federation. I am such a person – if I said, then I did. And in our federation there is something new every second, and I do not want to keep track of who is friends or quarrels with whom,” Gorbacheva said.
The possible change of sports citizenship by Kovtun has already been commented on for Tribuna.com by the President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine Vadim Gutsayt.
“I have heard these rumors, but this is not yet confirmed information, there is no official information anywhere. As the president of the NOC and as a person who has cared about sports all his life, I believe that we need to talk to both coach Irina Gorbacheva and Ilya Kovtun. They are currently abroad all the time, I know that they are receiving help in the country where they are, and this help is running out.
We need both the state and state bodies and the NOC to communicate, to offer them to return home. To create all the conditions for a top athlete, one of the best in the world, so that he does not leave his citizenship. Because, in my opinion, it would be unacceptable – on our part not to take steps to offer Ilya and his coach Ms. Irina to stay in Ukraine, to provide all the conditions.
For us, this is a very important athlete, who is Ukrainian, has already represented Ukraine at the Olympic Games, won a medal there. It is important for us that he does not leave our country and does not change his citizenship,” Gutzeit said.
Recall that Kovtun won silver in the parallel bars at the 2024 Olympics. This is his first Olympic medal in his career.
He also came in fourth twice at the Paris Games – in the floor exercise and the individual all-around. In addition, Ilya took fifth place as part of the Ukrainian national team in the team all-around.
The Paris Games were the second Olympics in Kovtun's career. At his debut Games in Tokyo in 2021, he took 11th place in the individual all-around and became seventh on the team.