Tokyo 2020 - Olympic organisers apologise after calling Ukrainian swimming bronze medalists Russian
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Published 05/08/2021 at 08:01 GMT
Olympic organisers were forced to issue an apology after two Ukrainian athletes were announced as Russian on the podium. Marta Fiedina and Anastasiya Savchuk won a bronze medal in the artistic swimming duet competition, but announcers mistakenly said they represented the ROC. You want it? We have it. Stream every Olympic event live on discovery+.
Bronze medallists Ukraine's Marta Fiedina and Ukraine's Anastasiya Savchuk pose with their medals on the podium after the final of the women's duet free routine artistic swimming event
Image credit: Getty Images
Tokyo 2020 organisers have apologised after mistakenly announcing Ukrainian bronze medallists Marta Fiedina and Anastasiya Savchuk as Russian.
The Ukraine duo won bronze in the artistic swimming duet competition with Russian pair Svetlana Romashina and Svetlana Kolesnichenko taking the gold.
Russian athletes have been competing as the Russian Olympic Committee after the country was punished for a host of doping violations, with the acronym ROC used for competitors.
The medal presentations saw announcers introduce Savchuk and Fiedina as representing ROC.
“It was purely an operational mistake,” said the organising committee spokesman, Masa Tanaka.
“The French language calling out (of medallists) should have said Team Ukraine, however it said ROC instead.”
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Tanaka added: “I also used this opportunity to express my apology to those who are in the Ukrainian team."
Savchuk and Fiedina waited until the correct country was announced before stepping up to collect their medals.
The mistake is amplified by the tense diplomatic relations between Russia and Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and conflict continues in the region between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists.
The ROC are fifth in the medal table at Tokyo 2020.
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