How the Russian team in Muay Thai was met in Moscow after the triumph at the World Championships

The World Championship in Thai boxing was not easy for athletes from Russia. Russian athletes in Bangkok performed under a neutral status, that is, without the national anthem and flag. But this did not prevent the fighters from becoming victors of the competition and bringing home a whole scattering of medals. About how the champions were met – in the story .

Maria Klimova receives the most important congratulations on her victory from her mother at home. To become the best in the world, she needed four championship victories. She did an excellent job with the task. In the hands – a gold medal, and on the face – not a single bruise.

“Training, general fatigue, broken legs – it all accumulated. And so, when I won and my hands were raised, I exhaled:” Hooray! I can be free “– says the world champion in Muay Thai Maria Klimova.

Shy, shy in front of the TV cameras and harsh and uncompromising in the ring. The Klimov family did not miss a single broadcast of their daughter’s fights. They put off all things, got sick and worried, wherever they were.

“We were driving along the highway, we stopped at some kind of gas station. They screamed so much that I thought that those who pour gasoline would hand over somewhere, because a woman arrived, was driving and yelling”– says Irina Klimova, mother of Maria Klimova.

The competition is the best of the best. In the homeland of Thai boxing, our athletes won 26 medals, 11 of them were gold. No other team has any more, and this year there were one and a half hundred of them.

In character, despite injuries and fatigue, our athletes went to the jubilee, 30th World Championship only to win. Vladimir Tulaev won two fights with a broken nose. It was not possible to reach the finals, he brought home a bronze medal.

“They fought to the end with bleeding, the nose looked the other way. They leveled it after the fight. The next fight was won, and then the next one was lost”– says the bronze medalist of the World Championship Vladimir Tulaev.

As always, politicians tried to spoil the holiday of sports. The Russian flag was not raised at the award ceremony and the national anthem was not played. Our fighters performed in a neutral status. But thanks to loyal fans, everyone who watched the fights live and online did not forget where strong Thai boxers come from.

The team in the ring proved that it is number one in the world. But in official documents, the victory is in the asset of the team that was behind.

“Medals – real champions – real, but we were not included in the team standings. If we were in the standings, we would be in first place overall”– says Grigory Drozd, President of the Moscow Thai Boxing Federation.

It is unlikely that those who got the gold by political decision can consider themselves winners. For spectators and for the participants of the competition, it is obvious which country’s team is actually the world champion.