Dylan Bettencourt
Ukrainian swimmer Mykhailo Romanchuk said he was “ready to go and kill” his former friend Evgeny Rylov who was seen at a pro-Putin rally.
Romanchuk said the ban on Russian athletes needs to remain in place after Rylov was pictured wearing the pro-war “Z” symbol at a rally in favour of the invasion of Ukraine.
The 25-year-old Ukrainian and Rylov were not only friends. They were once teammates at an International Energy Standard swimming event.
The pair even described themselves as “brothers in sport” four years ago.
Rylov, however, was banned from swimming competitions by governing body Fina for wearing the “Z” symbol, which shows support for Russian President’s Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Romanchuk, who won a silver medal at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, said politics and sport cannot be separated.
“If someone tells me that sport is not politics, I will tell them that sport is the biggest [realm of] politics.
“Unfortunately, it’s true and it is the right decision that the Russians are not here because if I saw some of the Russian guys I don’t know how I would react towards them,” he said, per The Times.
The Ukrainian said he and Rylov were close friends, but he was ready to “kill him” for his support of Putin.
“Maybe I would be aggressive. I don’t know. Especially when the backstroke guy [Rylov] joined the Putin rally at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow in March. I was ready to go and kill him. We were friends before but everything changed,” he said.
Romanchuk became the first Ukrainian swimmer to win a medal at this year’s World Swimming Championships in Budapest, where no Russian or Belarusian athletes were permitted to compete.
He won the bronze medal in the 800m freestyle event, finishing behind German swimmer Florian Wellbrock, who provided shelter for the Ukrainian when he left the conflict-torn nation around 10 weeks ago.
Image source: @SportsStar
