Less than a day after the publication of the post on the social network, comments in Lithuanian and Russian began to appear in its comment section at an uncontrollable speed, insulting A. Starovoitova and her decision.
A significant number of comments were posted on recently created user profiles, which gives reason to believe that the comments are written in a coordinated manner with the aim of causing hatred and insulting A. Starovoitova, who made the historic decision.
Thus, less than two days after the creation of the post, the link received over 450 comments.
“It looks like we’ve had a social media cyber attack by comment bots. At first, we tried to hide the comments of fake profiles, but we faced the situation that while we hide five, ten of them are written. Obviously, someone didn’t like Anna’s decision very much,” commented the president of the Lithuanian Boxing Federation, Darius Šaluga.
We remind you that A. Starovoitova reached the semi-finals of the European Boxing Championship held in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, but decided not to fight N. Asatriana, the Russian boxer of the country’s aggressor.
What’s more, in order to express her full support for Ukraine, A. Starovoitova missed the award ceremony, where she would have been awarded the bronze medal of the Old Continent Championships for the second time in her career – the Lithuanian won such an award in 2022.
“I offered not to go on the podium myself – it’s not the time. And there is nothing to be proud of here – I did what was needed. And the least I could do.
And they gave me the medal very simply – they hung it around my neck, shook my hand and that was it. And, you know, I’m very happy – it was better than standing on the podium. It’s a great pleasure when you realize that you gave your whole heart,” she said.
She said she had not heard any reactions from the Russian camp after her act. Nobody even tried to persuade him to change his mind and step into the ring in the semi-finals.
“And who can persuade the boxer – he said “no”, and it’s holy,” A. Starovoitova smiled. – I don’t care what anyone thought. Emotions and thoughts were completely different. And if they are talking behind you, then you are in front of those speakers.”
A. Starovoitova secured the bronze medal in the quarterfinals, when she defeated Sheila Martinez Perez from Spain with a score of 5:0 (29:28, 29:28, 29:28, 30:27, 29:28). In the earlier round of 16, the Lithuanian boxer celebrated a convincing victory over Croatian Dea Bolanc with a score of 5:0 (30:27, 30:27, 29:28, 30:27, 30:27).
After defeating S. Martinez Perez in the quarter-finals, A. Starovoitova avenged her defeat in March in the selection for the Paris Olympic Games held in Milan.
