The Olympic Games in Paris have already ended for tennis players. On Sunday, we saw the last clashes for medals in the men's singles and women's doubles. The event of the day was the great duel for gold between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. After an extremely close match lasting almost three hours, the Serb proved to be better. He won 7:6 (3), 7:6 (2) and at the age of 37 became the Olympic champion for the first time. The match also had a wide resonance in Russia, but for a slightly different reason.
Eurosport showed the last Olympic tennis champions. Russia is in a frenzy
As part of the sanctions for the attack on Ukraine in Paris, the Russians cannot compete under their own flag, but as neutral athletes. The medals they win are not counted towards the medal standings, and in the event of a win, the Russian anthem will not be played. Eurosport, which broadcasts the competition, has decided to cross out the Russian flag also at historical events.
It concerns the graphic that appeared immediately after Djokovic's victory. At that time, viewers saw on the screens a table with the winners of the Olympic singles tournament from the last seven editions of the Games. At the very bottom was the name of the Russian tennis player Evgeny Kafelnikov, who won gold in 2000 at the Sydney Games. One detail draws attention.
The Russians did not see their flag. They could not survive this. “Shame”
There was no Russian flag next to Kafelnikov's name. Instead, there was a light green flag with a white circle in the middle, inside which were the letters AIN. This is an abbreviation for the French Athltes Individuels Neutres (Neutral Individual Athletes). The problem is that in Sydney, the Russians could compete on the same terms as other teams. – Yevgeny Kafelnikov represented Russia in 2000, not neutral athletes. It's a shame! – we read on the Sport24 profile on Telegram.
In addition to the gold medal from Sydney, Evgeny Kafelnikov has won 26 singles tournaments and 27 doubles tournaments. He has won two Grand Slam tournaments individually – once at the Australian Open and once at Roland Garros. In 1999, he was the leader of the ATP rankings.