Sportswoman Olga Zabelinskaya, who announced on the eve of her intention to change her citizenship and speak for the national cycling team of Uzbekistan, explained the reasons for her decision. According to her, the close attention of international sports officials to Russia leaves her no chance to get to the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, because her reputation is "dampened" with doping. "You see for yourself what is going on around the Russian sport at the last two Olympics. It all began in Rio, then in Pyeongchang the situation worsened and, in my senses, Tokyo will be even worse. I am 99% sure that my participation in the 2020 Games under the Russian flag will be impossible, - she said "Match TV".

- The situation will repeat the same as last winter with Kulizhnikov, Yuskov, other athletes who had doping problems in the past. I, like many other Russians, simply will not be invited to the Olympics, "the athlete is convinced. She said that the offer from Uzbekistan she received last year, but she took the time to think. The story of the complex admission of athletes from the Russian Federation to the Games in Pyeongchang persuaded her to a positive response. And in May at the Grand Prix of Moscow, she met with sports officials from Uzbekistan in person, and the point was set. "I do not feel the age and I'm ready to compete for medals in Tokyo," the 38-year-old athlete. However, her participation in the Games-2020 is still under big question. According to the rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with the change of sports citizenship must be 3 years before the athlete can compete in the Games for another country. The quarantine term can be shortened if the National Olympic Committee of the country agrees, which the athlete has left.

While Russian sports officials react decisively to Zabelinskaya's decision. "He took everything as a joke. "Where are you going to? In Uzbekistan? On the donkeys chasing?" - Zabelinskaya said about the reaction of the head of the Russian cycling federation Vyacheslav Yekimov. - I told him in all seriousness that I started the procedure of obtaining an Uzbek passport and for the Russian national team I will not speak any more. Then he began to say that I have invested a lot of money in the last two Olympic cycles, "the sportswoman.

Olga Zabelinskaya - twice the bronze prize-winner of the Olympics in London in 2012. , and a silver medalist on cycling on the highway of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. In 2014 year. her doping test gave a positive result for octopamine. The athlete for 1.5 years was deprived of the right to compete in international competitions, but she already had access to the games in Rio. According to the publication "Championships", Zabelinskaya from 2011. constantly takes root in Cyprus.