The coach of the Russian biathlon team, Artem Istomin, announced that the group will not go to the planned training camp in Antholz (Italy) due to the refusal of the Italian side. Therefore, Istomin's training camp in Italy, scheduled for August, will not take place.
«The information in the media was premature, nothing had been decided yet. We действительно planned to have a camp there, and we thought until the last moment that we would go... Yes, they will go as planned. We initially chose a training plan that was necessary for the entire team, but due to the difficulties of traveling and holding training camps in high altitude, it turned out to be impossible.»
Istomin also mentioned that biathletes Karim and Anastasia Khalili will still hold a camp in Italy, while in August the team will be working in Sochi instead of the scheduled camp in Italy.
Russian fencer Yana Egoryan won a gold medal at the World Fencing Championship. In the final, she defeated the Polish fencer Zuzanna Czeslar with a score of 15:11. Egoryan is an ambassador of a Russian public movement that is under sanctions and a lieutenant in the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Fetisov, reacted to the decision of the organizers of the Vilnius Marathon regarding the participation of Russian athletes, whose results are not recognized.
Both of these news items show that Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking athletes have a difficult path in the world of sports, where politics and sanctions do not contribute to sports achievements.