Lauren Hopkins:
Elena Skripel, chairwoman of the Belarusian Gymnastics Association, did an interview with Minsk Capital Television in which she discussed everything having to do with the decision to allow Americans compete at World Championships over her own Belarusian gymnasts.
We have translated the interview and have it in full below.
Recently you announced that American gymnasts will compete for Belarus in this discipline.
… Since November, we have been trying to figure out what’s going wrong with our artistic gymnastics. Unfortunately, our women currently have no prospects. We watched training sessions and received advice from some women’s coaches and then we as a group decided to accept the offer from the American side regarding the involvement of the American girls.
I’ll explain a little bit more. The thing is that we need to earn a spot for the Olympic Games at this World Championships. Therefore it is very important all the same to try to do everything possible to earn at least one spot so that Belarus is represented at the Olympics in this sport. Belarus has such a strong history in gymnastics, but over time, we’ve grown weaker. Therefore, we are moving in several directions. We have attracted American girls as a short-term solution, while at the same time we are working to invite a new head coach for our women’s team.
A new head coach will be invited.
Yes. We have reached an agreement with Oleg Ostapenko. …
In America, everyone is shocked, I believe.
Yes, already everyone is shocked. Now we’ll wait for the results.
I don’t like the decision. But we must be careful not to blame the gymnasts.
If you don’t like random gymnasts being allowed to join any Team in the world, blame the FIG. Blame the adults involved.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 