Vincent Zhou: “The fight for clean sport isn’t over; it continues, but these gold medals are a big step forward in the right direction.”
Vincent Zhou on the Russian team being stripped of the 2022 Beijing Olympics gold due to the disqualification of Kamila Valieva.
original source: Sport-Express dd. 7th August by Dmitrii Kuznetsov
Vincent Zhou answered the questions of the Russian journalist about the situation with the Russian team being stripped of the 2022 Beijing Olympics gold due to the disqualification of Kamila Valieva. Here’s a translation of his comment.
On August 7 in Paris, a medal ceremony for the U.S. and Japanese teams took place for the 2022 Beijing Olympics team figure skating competition. Russian athletes were not invited to the awarding ceremony.
“Vincent Zhou: I think this will open the eyes of many people. There was a big doping scandal in Sochi, but this latest scandal should be a signal that these stories continue. Eyes haven’t been opened. The fight for clean sport isn’t over; it continues, but these gold medals are a big step forward in the right direction. I don’t want to sound ungrateful.
Q: Should the rules for team event be rewritten to eliminate gray areas?
Vincent Zhou: The situation is indeed unprecedented but now that there is this precedent, it can be used to ensure that such loopholes no longer exist. But this is not my area of responsibility.
Q: If Russians had come here and taken the bronze, would that have been acceptable to you?
Vincent Zhou: It’s out of my control; I can’t say.
Q: Many in Russia thought you had the most radical, active stance on the medals. Do you agree?
Vincent Zhou: I haven’t been following what’s written on social media; I don’t really monitor that. I’m just for clean sport and fight for it. My team too, that’s all. I believe there should be no doping at competitions.
Q: If I were Kamila Valieva, what would you say to me?
Vincent Zhou: Well, you’re cornering me now with a tough question! I really don’t know. I think it’s not my role to answer that.”
Related topics: Vincent Zhou
First of all, how nice would it be not to mess up sports and ‘politics’. Clean sport? Dream on. If anything, acts like this only pour more water to the propaganda. ‘The world’ can’t hit the dictator with his oligarchs, so let’s target at least their sportsmen, who fairly won, if not the gold, at least that bronze. Can anyone in Russia doubt now the propaganda’s rhetoric about being discriminated? I can’t anymore, and I’m not Russian, also far from siding with them in the war.