With the exclusion of Russians and Belarusians, Wimbledon wanted to set a humanistic signal. But now the winner, Jelena Rybakina, playing for Kazakhstan, has to justify the fact that she was born in Moscow. That’s not fair.
comment by
Gerald Kleffmann, Wimbledon
As things stand, Yelena Rybakina is absolutely not guilty of anything. When the Russian decided in 2018 to compete for another country that simply promised her better training and funding opportunities, she did nothing other than what has long been part of everyday life in global sport. The trade with nationalities is by no means a phenomenon of tennis alone, in ice hockey one could often be amazed at which Canadians once again found a seventh-degree Schwippschwager in their family tree to justify a move to another country. These practices should be questioned in principle, but apparently particularly soft laws still apply to athletes.
