Russian athletes, who cannot use their national flag and national anthem in the Olympics until 2022 due to doping sample manipulation, are replacing the joy of winning a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics with the melody of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's piano concerto from the same country.



Russia's Evgeny Ilov and silver medalist Klement Kolesnikov were on the podium along with bronze medalist Ryan Murphy of the USA in the men's 100m backstroke final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Aquatic Center in Tokyo, Japan.



Instead of the flag of Ilov's homeland Russia, which won the championship, the Olympic Committee (ROC) flag of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) was placed on the stadium with a white-blue-red torch on the Olympic mark.



The song that sang together was Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, which is familiar to non-Russian nationals as well.



As with the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, Russian athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympics cannot use the name 'Russia'.



Russia was banned from membership by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in December 2017 after being found to have fabricated doping test results at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.



Russian athletes had to compete as 'Olympic Athletes from Russia' (OAR) at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.



The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) concluded in December 2019 that Russia had manipulated doping samples and decided to ban participation in major international sporting events for four years.



Russian athletes who had to listen to the 'Olympic Hymn' at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Awards ceremony are replacing them with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto on the Tokyo stage.



The Russian Olympic Committee originally decided to use the traditional Russian folk song 'Katyusa' in the Tokyo Olympics, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) commissioned CAS to interpret it, and CAS said that 'Katyusa' is folk music with a strong Russian color. declined for a reason.



The Russian Olympic Committee again proposed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, but CAS recognized Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 as the music for the awards ceremony, acknowledging that although Tchaikovsky is a Russian composer, his music is part of the world's musical heritage.



(Photo = Getty Images Korea)