Olympics: Ukraine skier, coach pull out in anti-regime protest

A Ukrainian alpine skier and her coach have pulled out of the Sochi Games in protest at the authorities’ deadly use of force against the protests in Kiev, they said Thursday.

Bogdana Matsotska and her coach Oleg Matsotskiy, who is also her father, said they were “outraged” by the refusal of President Viktor Yanukovych to favour dialogue.

“In a sign of protest… against the bandit-like actions against protesters, we are taking no further part in the Sochi Olympics in 2014,” Oleg Matsotskiy wrote on his Facebook page in a statement in the name of himself and his daughter.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams confirmed that the pair had pulled out of the Games after the violence in Ukraine that has left at least 28 dead.

He said that the head of Ukraine’s Olympic Committee, the former pole vault star Sergey Bubka, understood the decision of any Ukrainian athlete who wanted to leave.

But he added that Bubka thought that the “best way is for the team to stay here” to show solidarity with those suffering at home.