Official statement on the situation that occurred at the licensed, open swimming championships of Uzbekistan
In the course of its activities, the National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan has always promoted the noble ideas of Olympism and fair competition in sports, called on all national sports federations to strictly honor and comply with all anti-doping and other established rules and requirements when conducting international competitions and participating in them. Absolutely comply with the approved regulations.
To date, the incident that occurred at the open Swimming Championship of Uzbekistan, which was held according to the calendar plan of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan and under the auspices of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), is being actively discussed on the Internet. In turn, the National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan would like to express the following position regarding it:
According to the Uzbekistan Swimming Federation, on April 21, 2021, at the end of the championship, an athlete from India, Likit Selvarash Prema, posted a video on YouTube in which he declared injustice during the tournament and distortion of the results shown by local athletes.
It should be noted that the leadership of the National Olympic Committee regularly visited the licensed championships of Uzbekistan, as well as the representative of the operational headquarters of the NOC Mirsardor Alimov was constantly present at them.
After the end of the tournament, during the next meeting on the spot, the federation officials were given appropriate recommendations for further strengthening the process of training athletes of the national team and improving the quality of training.
At the end of the tournaments, the Swimming Federation of Uzbekistan submitted to the National Olympic Committee the protocol of the competition, in which it indicated that five athletes of the national team of Uzbekistan met the Tokyo 2020 standard. There was no information about any violations of the established rules in the submitted protocol.
Also, not a single foreign sports delegation, including the Indian one, had no comments and complaints about the holding of licensed, open championships of Uzbekistan.
At the same time, later, according to the Uzbek Swimming Federation, FINA did not recognize the results of the open licensed championships of Uzbekistan. According to the Secretary General of the Swimming Federation of the Republic Alisher Ganiev, FINA has not sent any official letters to Tashkent on this issue, although the Swimming Federation of Uzbekistan has repeatedly appealed to FINA for clarification about the information provided and even filed a complaint with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
As a result, according to the information of the Swimming Federation of Uzbekistan, FINA issued licenses to only two swimmers from Uzbekistan-Khurshijon Tursunov and Natalia Kritinina, on the basis of the Universal Place project.
The National Olympic Committee, as well as the Council of Sports Veterans of Uzbekistan officially declare that they categorically condemn violations of the established rules and norms that do not comply with the principles of Olympism and sports, the rules of competition and will require all federations and other sports organizations to comply with all the norms and requirements approved by the regulations.
In this regard, we demand from the Presidium of the Swimming Federation of Uzbekistan:
1. Organize a working group with the involvement of specialists from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the National Olympic Committee, the Council of Sports Veterans and the Swimming Federation of Uzbekistan to study and consider the above situations;
2. To ask the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to provide materials related to violations of the licensing, open championships of Uzbekistan in order to give a legal assessment;
3. Temporary suspension of the General Secretary of the Federation Alisher Ganiev from office.
The leadership of the NOC of Uzbekistan
Council of Sports Veterans of Uzbekistan
