Statements that have not gone unnoticed. Simon Fourcade gave an interview to the Russian media Match TV, published on Friday April 1, in which the coach of the French junior biathlon team considered that the decision to exclude Russian athletes from international competitions was “counterproductive”. Words which have since been controversial and have earned him a flood of hate messages, attacking him and his brother Martin, which led him to clarify his words, Sunday April 3, on his Instagram account.
The former French biathlete thus developed his point of view: “I do not support the war, nor the Russian government”he recalled in the preamble. “Yes, I said that I did not agree with the decision to exclude Russian athletes from international competitions because I think it is totally counterproductive and a big hypocrisy. Most Russian athletes are against the war but the reality is that they can’t tell!”
Calling to leave his brother out of the controversy, Simon Fourcade pointed the finger at the international federations: “It’s quite easy to see (them) with a united voice exclude Russian athletes when, at the same time, they attribute major sporting events to countries that do not respect peace and human rights” . “Maybe it’s time to stop supporting regimes and dictatorships by giving them such events and expecting athletes to make decisions and positions that they themselves are not capable of taking. “, thundered Simon Fourcade.
The day after the publication of the interview in the Russian media, the Ukrainian biathlete Dmytro Pidruchnyi reacted strongly and publicly on his Instagram account to the words of his former opponent. “Martin and Simon, go to hell. I hope your children will never feel the pain that Ukrainian children have experienced,” had he first written before specifying in his message that he “regrets having voted for Martin on the IOC Athletes’ Commission”, describing the star of French biathlon with unkind words. In a comment to this message, Martin Fourcade replied to him “understand his anger and his sadness“. “But that doesn’t allow you to insult someone because you disagree with what their brother said,” slashed the multiple Olympic medalist.
Engaged in the Ukrainian army since the start of the conflict, the biathlete believes, contrary to the position adopted by Simon Fourcade, that “sport has always been a marketing tool for any country. (…) For me, the silence of Russian and Belarusian athletes means that they have made the choice to support the war. I do not regret the everything that they are not present at any international competition because I believe that all the people of Russia and Belarus are responsible for the one they elected and to whom they pardoned the crimes of before”, wrote the athlete, in the caption of a photo where he appears helmeted, armed and protected by a bulletproof vest.