Vlasov stressed the importance of the victory to the Russian athletes and people afterwards, stressing that he hopes his win will serve as motivation for other Russian athletes at these games.
“We all understood that we have to get as many gold medals as possible as a consequence of the situation around sports in Russia.“- Vlasov was quoted as saying after the gold medal win.
Russians Are Crazy
“In all the Olympic Games, in the three wrestling events, we get eight or nine gold medals. We realised that we cannot lose.”
The patriotism from Vlasov is not surprising, as he is also a lieutenant in the Russian athlete, a country that was almost banned from these Olympics completely for what many are calling “state-sponsored doping”. In the end many Russian athletes have not been allowed to compete in Rio this year, many weightlifters and track and field athletes.
Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have been very critical of the decision to ban many Russian athletes, and that sentiment has also been expressed by the Russian athletes in Rio.
“The unfair decision against our athletics team motivated us more to win medals.” Vlasov was quoted as saying.
Vlasov would continue on to say that the officials in his bout with Starcevic were biased against him.
“The opponent even strangled me, but the judge didn’t even give him a warning.”
The Russians are definitely coming into the olympics feeling as though it is them against the world.
