Ukraine opts out of single sculls at 2024 Olympics

Ukraine's rowing team has decided not to compete in the single sculls at the 2024 Olympic Games.

This information emerged after Ukraine's National Olympic Committee announced the composition of the Ukrainian team for the 2024 Games.

In a comment to Suspilne Sport, a sports-related branch of Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne, the coach of the Ukrainian national team, Mykola Chupryna, justified the decision by indicating that there has been a replacement for the quadruple sculls team. Instead of competing in the singles, Yevheniia Dovhodko will replace Nataliia Dovhodko, who has health problems, in the quad team.

"The issue arises from the personalised nature of the licence we obtained in Szeged. This means that we cannot substitute anyone in the singles event. It's either Yevheniia Dovhodko competes or no one else can. Our primary focus has been on developing the quadruple sculls over the past three years, aiming for strong Olympic performance. We want it to be as solid and team-based as possible, not just the four strongest singles. And we now see that we have achieved this.

Making this decision was challenging. We were informed that a replacement was possible, and after unanimous agreement among the coaching board and athletes, we chose Yevheniia Dovhodko for the team. This way, there are fewer nerves, more results and she is more stable. We then brought this matter to the attention of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.

We had similar situations two months ago and three months ago. We saw that it could be better, but we didn't do anything about it because there are sports ethics, and we didn't raise the replacement issue. But when we saw that there was a difference, the issue was resolved – we made a replacement. Nataliia Dovhodko will go as a substitute because any situation can arise, but a new unit has appeared – Yevheniia Dovhodko," Chupryna said.

Background: Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine will be represented by the smallest number of athletes in its history at the 2024 Olympics.

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