Google – AFP, Stuart Williams (AFP), 20 August 2013
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Russia's
Yulia Gushchina catches her breath during the IAAF World
Championships in Daegu
on September 1, 2011 (AFP/File, Olivier Morin)
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MOSCOW —
Two Russian female gold medal winners at the Moscow World Athletics
Championships expressed bewilderment Tuesday over media claims that their passionate
podium kiss was a symbol of gay defiance against a new Russian law banning
homosexual "propaganda".
Kseniya
Ryzhova and Yulia Gushchina, who kissed each other on the lips after receiving
their gold medals, said they were offended by any suggestion they were more
than just good friends and complained the furore had spoilt their victory
celebrations.
The pair
were half of the Russian 4x400 women's relay quartet who swept to victory in
front of a packed Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on Saturday, defeating the
American favourites in one of the highlights of the championships.
Some
activists saw the kiss as a brazen show of defiance in support of gays and
lesbians and against President Vladimir Putin after the championships were
shadowed throughout by controversy over the law.
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Kseniya
Ryzhova runs during the 2013 IAAF
World Championships at the Luzhniki stadium
in Moscow on August 10, 2013 (AFP/File,
Adrian Dennis)
|
"Yesterday,
I was telephoned 20 times by various publications and instead of congratulating
me they decided to insult me with these questions," she fumed, quoted by
the ITAR-TASS news agency.
"Myself
and Yulia are both married and we are not having any kind of
relationship," she added, saying the two were very good friends after
having trained together for eight years.
"It
was a storm of emotions (after winning). And if at that moment we touched
lips... I don't know in whose fantasy this all gets thought up.
"This
insults not just us but our trainers," she added.
Gushchina,
30, expressed similar astonishment, saying she "could not understand how
such a thing could come into people's heads."
"When
Kseniya sent me the link to the photograph and the news reports I could not
believe my eyes! These victories are hard to come by and we were happy. I don't
understand how everything could be tarnished in such a way."
Gushchina
said she was completely unaware of the controversy surrounding the law. "I
simply did not hear or read about it because I was totally focused on my
performance at the championships."
The law,
which outlaws the dissemination of homosexual "propaganda" to minors,
was signed by Putin in June and has prompted calls for a boycott of the 2014
Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The
controversy was intensified at the World Championships when gold medal-winning
star Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva backed the law and said "we
just live with boys with women, women with boys."
She also
branded Swedish high-jumper Emma Green-Tregaro as "disrespectful" for
painting her nails in the rainbow colours of gay rights.
The stance
of Isinbayeva -- who later said she may have been misunderstood and was against
anti-gay discrimination -- has received widespread support among Russian media
and sports officials.
"It's
madness," Russia's chief athletics coach Valentin Maslakov told the
Sovietsky Sport daily. "What did she say? She gave her opinion. And
Western journalists -- if we can call them journalists -- immediately decided
to make a story about nothing."
Valentin
Balakhnichev, the head of the Russian athletics federation who was among few
Russian officials to criticise Isinbayeva for her comments, said it was time
for everyone to calm down.
"I'm
very upset by all the furore that has sprung up around Russia and the law. I
ask everyone to stop and take it easy. Not one participant in Moscow experienced
pressure because of their beliefs."
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