European Gymnastics Championships in Zagreb: No visa: Russian world champion goes wakeboarding before the European Championships

The Russian team actually wanted to fly to Croatia last Sunday. On Saturday she was told that she could not travel. “On Monday – unexpectedly – I got a call and was told that the visas had been issued, you had to pack your things and go to the airport. That was very stressful because I was actually already relaxed,” Melnikova said.

What happened before arrival

“After ongoing discussions between the Croatian government, the Croatian Gymnastics Federation and the European Gymnastics Federation, the majority of the Russian delegation has now received their visas and will arrive in Zagreb in time for podium training,” European Gymnastics announced on Monday. Podium training is the only opportunity to train on the competition equipment before the competition begins.

Melnikova and her teammates flew from Moscow via Doha to Zagreb at short notice and landed there on Tuesday. “We arrived at the airport at 7 a.m. and had to be ready for podium training by 11 a.m.,” she said.

The Russian gymnasts are only allowed to compete in Zagreb without flags, anthems and any national symbols and are listed as “World Gymnastics 2”. The same applies to Belarus, which competes as “World Gymnatics 1”.

The athletes of both nations have been excluded from competitions since February 2022 due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, in which Belarus is considered a supporter, and were allowed to start as neutral athletes under certain conditions. Last May, the World Federation (Fig) and European Gymnastics lifted all sanctions.