Federico Pellegrino puts the interests of sport above his own. Decent behavior of a two-time Olympic medalist.
The start of the international cross-country skiing season surprised us with quite unexpected results. First of all, we are talking about the failure of Klebo, who frankly wilted without worthy competition.
An incomplete starting list also worries experienced athletes. Italian sprinter Pellegrino is disappointed with the behavior of Scandinavian skiers and calls on Russophobes to wake up and return Russia to the competition.
A worthy position for the world champion and Klebo’s main rival in the sprint.
A spirited veteran
The 33-year-old Pelle was written off by many after the 2021 World Championships, where he failed to reach the final of the classic sprint and was an eternity behind the top three in the team sprint duet with De Fabiani.
But the experienced Italian did not give up. Working in a team with Markus Kramer and Russian athletes of the level of Sergei Ustyugov and Artyom Maltsev, Federico made another dream come true – in Beijing he snatched a silver medal in the sprint and repeated the success of four years ago.
And even after such achievements, Kramer’s ward found the motivation to continue his career, although it became increasingly difficult to fight with the younger French, Norwegians and top Klebo. Nevertheless, in Planica 2023, the Italian was again on the podium – second place in the team skating sprint with De Fabiani.
This season, Pelle tried to take it right off the bat: he reached the final in the classic sprint and tried until the last to win bronze from Klebo. It didn’t work out to reach the medal, but Federico was able to spoil the nerves of the Norwegians. With Johannes’ prospects of being in top form before the end of the year looking dim, the continental European veteran will be one of the big favorites in the next sprint races.
Annoying words
It is clear that in the presence of the Russians, the Italian’s chances for medals and prize money would have been significantly less, but Pellegrino remains a real athlete and publicly calls for the return of Russian skiers to the World Cup. You need to compete with the strongest. For Federico it is a matter of honor. Unlike its Scandinavian rivals, who once again put pressure on the FIS before the start of the season. Italians are irritated by this behavior.
— Sports have their own rules, and we must follow the Olympic Charter. One of the first articles there says that politics should not be mixed with sports. Especially in the Nordic countries there is too much political talk and thinking. Sport doesn’t deserve this. I think they talk too much about the situation. Their mistake is that they mix politics and sports. Sanctions are not the task of sport, says the 2017 world sprint champion.
The winner of third place in the overall World Cup standings last season does not enjoy much support among other athletes – after all, the elite of world skiing right now are represented by Norwegians and Swedes. It is difficult to fight them alone.
Although in addition to the Italian, there are also strong Frenchmen Jouve, Zhe and Shanava, without Russia the competition has become almost unipolar. So Pellegrino quite logically demands the return of our athletes. From a sporting point of view, this is the most correct step.
But the Swedes, Finns and Norwegians continue to blackmail the President of the International Ski Federation Elias and his team with a boycott if Bolshunov and other Russians are admitted to the World Cup. This behavior suits many people, while others simply remain silent. Against this background, Pellegrino’s attempt to call on everyone to a reasonable solution to the problem looks all the more worthy. Well, if the Italian gets tired of this masquerade, our skiers will happily meet him at the Russian Cup.
2023-11-28 11:52:25
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