Ukrainian officials termed Lyskun’s switch ‘categorically unacceptable’ and have stripped her all of medals and awards.
Published On 5 Dec 2025
The Ukrainian Diving Federation has stripped Sofiia Lyskun of all her medals and awards following her decision to switch allegiance to Russia.
Lyskun, who represented Ukraine at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the Paris Games last year, revealed the change in an interview with a Russian newspaper earlier this week.
The federation said Lyskun had not informed them, her coaching staff or Ukraine’s sports ministry about her decision to adopt Russian citizenship.
“Such steps are categorically unacceptable,” it said in a statement on Friday.
“They discredit not only an individual athlete, but also the entire team of Ukraine which every day selflessly fights for the right to represent our country in the international arena.
“The Diving Federation of Ukraine will also appeal to international sports institutions with a requirement to apply sports quarantine to this athlete in accordance with current international standards,” it added.
Lyskun won a 10-metre synchronised diving gold for Ukraine with Kseniia Bailo at last year’s European aquatics championships in Belgrade, as well as team gold at the 2018 event in Glasgow.
The 23-year-old told Russian outlet Izvestia that her switch was based on concerns for her growth as an athlete, as all Ukrainian coaches were gymnasts or trampoline athletes.
“How can someone from a completely different field teach you anything? Over the past few years in sports in Ukraine, I realised I wasn’t growing,” she said.
Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from World Aquatics events after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but some of their athletes competed as neutrals in the Paris Olympics as the restrictions were eased.
