Russian Olympian Refuses to Wear Medal in a Shocking Act at Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

The Olympics are the grandest stage of sports in the world. Athletes from all over the world train relentlessly for years to become Olympians, in the hope of bringing glory to their countries. Similarly, the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 was no exception.

Any match or event for an Olympian is always life or death. Thus, they leave everything they have on the floor in the hopes of golden glory. In that vein, it can be quite devastating to not be able to achieve your goals.

Further still, it must be even more terrible for an Olympian to fall just short of the gold medal that every sportsperson dreams of. This was the case for the goaltender for the Russian Olympic Committee, Ivan Fedotov.

ROC’s goaltender was left heartbroken at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

It was a sad day for the Russian Olympic Committee as they lost the Men’s Hockey final at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. It was team Finland that came away with their first-ever Olympic hockey gold medal, vanquishing the ROC 2-1.

Naturally, there were nothing but smiles, laughs, and tears of joy in the Finland camp, as the men adorned in blue hugged each other to celebrate their Olympic golden victory.

On the other hand, dejection loomed over the ROC. The players sat stunned by their defeat, with slumped shoulders and grim faces. Perhaps saddest on the ice was Ivan Fedotov, the goaltender for the ROC team.

This year, owing to the worldwide pandemic, athletes are picking up their medals from a platter. Thus, when it came time for members of the ROC to pick up their silver medals, Fedotov did pick his up. However, he didn’t wear it around his neck.

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In fact, he was the only player from either team who had not slung their medal around their neck. Instead, the dejected Russian simply held his medal in his hand, looking sullen after the close defeat.

Fedotov explains his decision to not wear the silver medal

Ivan Fedotov explained later why he simply couldn’t bring himself to wear the silver medal around his neck. “It’s hard to accept that it isn’t gold,” he said.

He explained how he is “an all-or-nothing person”. Hence, for him, “it’s hard to accept a defeat”.

Nevertheless, he isn’t simply going to disregard his silver medal, either. After all, his teammates and he worked hard to reach the final of the Men’s Hockey event at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022.

“I’ll definitely put it (silver medal) on and enjoy that, but later on,” the goaltender stated. Fedotov was certainly the hero of his team today, as he saved several goals from reaching the back of the net, and his teammates lauded him for his effort, too.

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