"Make Russia Small Again": Lithuania’s Top Diplomat Supports Athlete Disqualified Over T-Shirt Message
The day before, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys expressed support for Lithuanian athlete Kornelija Dudaitė, who was withdrawn from the World Functional Sports Championships after she wore a T-shirt with the words ‘make russia small again’.
The head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry wrote about this on the social network X.
‘No one should be punished for speaking out against terror and aggression. The aggressor is the one who should be brought to justice,’ Budrys said.
He added that he was proud of Lithuanians who ‘bravely defend freedom and their values under any circumstances’.
Lithuanian athlete Kornelija Dudaitė was withdrawn from the World Functional Sports Championships after she wore a T-shirt with the words ‘make russia small again’.
According to Dudaite herself, this inscription is her own position, not that of the entire national team.
‘This is my position, not the national team's. Later, I received an official letter saying that if I took off the shirt and erased all the photos of me in it, I would be allowed to participate in the championship. I refused, after which the security guards took me out of the arena. The competition was over for me. As far as I know, the rest of the national team is deciding whether to participate in the competition. Most of the adult athletes decided not to participate in the championship. This is the situation so far,’ Dudaitė said.
Following the scandal involving the disqualification of the athlete, the decision to withdraw from the championships was made by the entire Lithuanian national team.
The national team's press release later noted that the Lithuanian Functional Sports Federation had decided not to participate in the competition in Budapest due to the organisers‘ “negligent attitude to the ”neutral flag’ policy’.
‘At the championship, the athletes were allowed to display the symbols of the aggressor country - they were visible during the live broadcast, and the name of the country was indicated. The negligence of the organisers, ignoring the neutral flag policy, goes against our values, so the Lithuanian Functional Sports Federation recommended that the team members leave the competition,’ the statement said.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus also took part in the championship, which is being held in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
Earlier, on 23 October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recorded a video message wearing a T-shirt with the words ‘make russia small again’.