Beijing, February 8, Alexander Bokulev. Russian speed skater Ruslan Zakharov said that does not give up his words about Russian hockey players who refused to fly with other Olympians to the Games in Beijing. Before the start of the Olympics, Russian hockey players flew to Beijing separately from other athletes. Zakharov criticized this decision, considering that the act of the hockey players was disrespectful towards other Olympians and is dividing the national team. Later, the general manager of the Russian national hockey team, Ilya Kovalchuk, responded to criticism and wished Zakharov good luck at the Games, and the head coach of the team, Alexei Zhamnov, admitted that it was unpleasant for him to read the words of the skater. «, — Zakharov told reporters. — When would Alexei Zhamnov and Ilya Kovalchuk talk about speed skating? But I do not give up my words. At that time, these were my thoughts — if I go back, I completely agree with them. I do not plan to share with them a meal, but we wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway because of the partitions. For some reason, none of them who saw me came up and said what an asshole Zakharov was.”
