Russian F1 star Nikita Mazepin has discussed the status of his mandatory military service as the star juggles a career in elite motorsport with studies at a Moscow university, while looking ahead to a one-month army course.
The 22-year-old rookie driver is without a single championship point in his 15 career races to date in what can be described as an inauspicious start to his career at the sport’s highest level, and has been largely overshadowed by teammate Mick Schumacher as well as accusations of unsafe driving from his rivals.
With Mazepin still finding his feet in Formula One his father, Dmitry, had stated that his son’s momentum might be entirely stifled if he is subject to Russia’s mandatory military conscription – something which all male citizens aged between 18 and 27 must commit to, but with some exceptions.
“Nikita has 23 races, and they tell him that he needs to join the army,” billionaire businessman Dmitry Mazepin said this past summer. “They told him he had to be present at the training camp regularly. There would be no exceptions.
“He has a race every two weeks. How does he do it? Who do I ask this question to? And I’m not talking about Nikita Mazepin alone but about everyone: athletes and professionals in the same situation. The issue of education and sports is relevant.”
However, Mazepin has allayed concerns that his budding F1 career might be put on hold by previously explaining that he studies at Moscow State University for a period of three years, which will also allow him to graduate as a reserve officer.
Speaking recently to Russian TV, Mazepin gave an update on his studies and military plans looking ahead.
“Ilya Vyacheslavovich, the dean of my faculty, found time to personally present me with a diploma of completion of my bachelor’s degree. It is important to get support from the university. I was at the university today, because I had lectures, I am studying for a master’s degree,” Mazepin explained on television program ’50 Questions’.
“Did I get any marks just because I am a Formula 1 driver? No. It’s hard to tell what other people have in their heads. But several times I had problems due to omissions, bad grades in some subjects. And I understood that this was a chance to fly out.
“Sport does not last forever. I sincerely believe that, say, at the age of 30, when the career of a Formula 1 racer leaves its peak, life is just beginning. I grew up in a family where my mother graduated from Moscow State University, my father graduated from MGIMO, so, honestly, there was never a question about ‘not studying.’”
And as for how he feels he is performing in the military department?
“Things are not bad, the school year has just resumed. I’m not in the army, I’m in the military department, I have to finish this year, so I look forward to the summer, because we will have training camps somewhere in Balashikha. I will need to live in the barracks for a month.”
Draft avoidance is a felony under Russian criminal code and is punishable by up to two years in prison.
Since 2008, Russia has exempted full-time students who graduate from civil university with a military education.
Mazepin finished at the back of the grid on his home Grand Prix in Sochi last weekend – but again faced accusations from his peers for his sometimes erratic driving style, prompting a warning from F1 race director Michael Masi.
The Russian driver earned the ire of Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda after Mazepin blocked an overtaking attempt with a move which came close to sending the Scuderia AlphaTauri driver into the wall – something which Masi said “would not be tolerated“.
“Going through Turn 12, it was just the move that he came across so late with Yuki, who was overtaking with DRS – it’s one of the things that we’ve said a few times and that we’ve issued black-and-whites for before, that it’s unsportsmanlike conduct and not something that we would tolerate,” said Masi after the race.
The head coach of Russia’s wrestling team has hit out at ‘provocations’ after members of the team including double Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev were removed from a flight in a row over Covid mask measures.
News of the incident was relayed by Match TV, which said members of the Russian delegation traveling to the World Championships in Norway were removed from their flight in Amsterdam when connecting to Oslo.
The head coach of the freestyle wrestling team, Dzambolat Tedeev, plus his charges Sadulaev, Timur Bizhoev, Yevgeny Zherbaev and Abasgadzhi Magomedov, had to spend the whole night at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands’ largest city.
Only in the morning were they able to finally fly to the Norwegian capital, where the World Championships get underway on Saturday.
Later to TASS, Tedeev explained how the debacle unfolded.
“At first I didn’t understand what it was – half the plane were sitting without masks, and we were in masks. One person’s mask slipped, and that was the reason why they took us off the plane,” said the coach.
“They came exactly to us, they started taking our guys off the plane – I won’t sit in my seat, I can’t leave my team. Even if they took one of them [my team], I would have gone with him.
“I’ll point out that coming out of the plane the passengers gave their approval to the cabin crew and special services. ‘You took them away, well done’. Where is that hatred from?
“And when we left the plane there were already 40 people with guns and tasers standing there. We left calmly, without even trying to fight.
“Where did these 40 people come from with weapons in their hands, if this wasn’t a provocation?”
After he “immediately contacted the leaders of our federation,” Tedeev claimed that the reaction could have been due to Russia being a “team and country of winners,” with the incident “specially created out of the blue”.
“We still got to Oslo a couple of hours ago. Now they are sleeping, everyone is tired,” he added.
Becoming a double Olympic champion at the recent Tokyo 2020 Games where he was a flag-bearer for the closing ceremony, Sadulaev, known as the “Russian Tank”, is aiming for his fifth gold medal at the upcoming competition.
An investigative report has claimed vaccine hesitancy remains rife in the Premier League as it alleges that two-thirds of players haven’t received the jab, as conspiracy theories surrounding the likes of Bill Gates run rampant.
Concerns are growing within the Premier League that senior players are misguiding younger players as to the potential dangers of receiving inoculation against Covid-19, according to an investigation conducted by the Daily Mail.
The wide-ranging report suggests that as many as two-thirds of Premier League players haven’t yet been double-jabbed against the potentially deadly virus, amid concerns that dressing rooms have been “polluted” by senior players spreading Covid-19 misinformation – such as theories that the vaccination can lead to infertility, vitamins are more effective as a treatment and the suggestion that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is backing a nefarious plan to ‘microchip’ the world’s population as part of the vaccine drive.
The report also states that just seven of the Premier League’s 20 clubs have vaccination rates of more than 50% – with three clubs even reporting just a single-digit vaccine uptake in their squads.
And as one frustrated anonymous club doctor claimed to the Daily Mail, several high-profile players have fully subscribed to Covid misinformation and are citing it as a reason for their hesitancy.
“It’s very frustrating and hard to know what to do, as the conspiracy theories have really taken hold in some dressing rooms,” the doctor said. “We’ve got senior players, intelligent men, coming out with all sorts of nonsense and they won’t be budged. One of them told me he didn’t need the vaccine because he could boost his immunity by taking vitamins.
“Some of the stuff they’re reading – and believing – on the internet is incredible. Players are saying that it will make them infertile, that it’s part of a plot involving Bill Gates, the pandemic is just propaganda. The real problem is that they’re also polluting the minds of younger players.”
The Bill Gates conspiracy theory has gained significant steam across the past 18 months and is thought to trace back to a talk given by Gates in March of last year in which he predicted that ‘vaccine passports’ would be implemented as a means of identifying who has or hasn’t received a vaccine.
Despite Gates making no mentions of microchips, several conspiratorial sources alleged that Gates was working to ‘track’ people with technology included as part of the vaccine injection – with a YouGov poll last year claiming that as many as 44% of Republicans believed that Gates was working with various vaccine distributors to add tracking chips to vaccine shots.
Furthermore, the report claims that many Premier League dressing rooms are seeing anti-vax trends fostered by senior players, something which has a trickle down effect on younger players within the squad.
It also suggests that there is an issue with some foreign players railing against being ‘told’ to receive a vaccine amid a larger mistrust of government, something seen as a symptom of different ethic and cultural backgrounds.
“This is obviously a very sensitive area, but there do seem to be particular problems among black players, possibly for cultural reasons,” the Daily Mail quoted an unnamed Championship manager as saying.
“I’ve had several black players tell me that the vaccine affects them differently. And of the five players at our club who are refusing to be vaccinated, four of them are black.”
Others, though, say that the vaccine hesitancy prevalent at some of the Premier League’s biggest clubs is a signifier that player power has gotten out of control.
“A lot of it is down to ego, pure and simple,” the anonymous manager continued. “At some of the bigger clubs the players are clearly in charge. Footballers aren’t used to looking after themselves, so if it’s left up to them it won’t happen, and the clubs who weren’t quick to get players vaccinated are really struggling.”
But it seems as though unless the Premier League institutes a vaccination policy similar to that of the NFL in the United States, this situation isn’t going to change any time soon – regardless of the veracity of the reasoning for avoiding the shot.
Russian gymnastics coaching legend Irina Viner-Usmanova has criticized Tokyo 2020 champion Artur Dalaloyan after he disapproved of cars given to the Averina sisters after their disappointment in Japan.
Artistic gymnast Artur Dalaloyan, who scooped team gold in the Japanese capital as part of the first Russian team to achieve the feat in 25 years, said he felt it wasn’t “entirely fair” that Olympic silver medalist Dina Averina and fourth-placed Arina Averina were treated to a BMW X5 for winners and BMW X3 for medalists respectively.
“On the one hand, the girls deserved what they got [their cars],” said Dalaloyan.
“On the other hand, this is not entirely fair in relation to those athletes who, for some reason – due to bad luck, injury or controversial refereeing – did not get into the prize-winners at the Olympics, but remained unnoticed.”
Catching wind of this, Russian gymnastics official Viner-Usmanova has not bitten her tongue.
“There are too many idiots in Russia,” she was quoted as saying.
“I do not want to speak out about the speech of one of them. If the president thinks that giving Dina Averina a car is fair, then why would anyone argue with that?” Viner-Usmanova asked.
The Averina sisters finished were left disappointed in the individual all-round event which was won by Lina Ashram.
Ashram was trolled online by admirers of Dina Averina, who told the attacks to stop.
“I feel bad for Linoy. She didn’t do anything wrong. Stop hounding her,” Averina demanded.
“We’re not guilty of anything – it’s the judges’ business,” she stated.
Viner-Usmanova has played down the debacle in recent weeks.
On the eve of the upcoming World Championships, which Israel and therefore Ashram pulled out of last month in a supposedly unrelated development, she said that she “wasn’t interested at all” regarding Ashram’s absence.
“What kind of revenge are you talking about?” she asked, in a possible reference to what Averina has publicly revealed she wishes to exact at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“Dina Averina was the winner for me and almost the whole world,” Viner-Usmanova scoffed.
MMA fans and pundits reacted in shock and called for common sense to prevail after UFC bantamweight contender Aspen Ladd was seen shaking on the scales at the weigh-in ahead of a fight that was eventually canceled by officials.
Currently number 10 in the women’s pound-for-pound rankings and number three in her division, 9-1 Ladd was scheduled to take on 8-1 Macy Chiasson on a UFC Fight Night card in Las Vegas headlined by Thiago Santos and Johnny Walker.
Attending the weigh-in, however, the 26-year-old had to strip down while attempting to make the 135-pound limit, and first came in at 141.5.
Covered by boarding to hide her modesty, the Folsom, California native was then described as “looking weak” and seen shaking and stumbling in disturbing footage when asked to lift her arms.
In an indicator of a brutal weight cut, she was evidently lucky not to pass out.
Aspen Ladd almost fainted when trying to stand on her feet and raise both hands on the scale. (She weighed in at 137). Commission is now checking her condition and if she’s able to fight tomorrow. #UFCVegas38pic.twitter.com/ycHF3HkPeE
Bizarre scene right now at #UFCVegas38 weigh-ins. Aspen Ladd has been standing on the scale for 3-4 minutes, looking weak and even shaking at times as they are unable to register her weight.
An MMA pundit said that Ladd was on the scales for “three-to-four” minutes in total and the best she could do in the end was 137lbs.
But voices such as Ariel Helwani called for the bout to be scrapped altogether.
“Aspen Ladd should not fight tomorrow. That was extremely troubling. Common sense has to prevail here. What in the world,” the Canadian wrote on Twitter, later adding: “Look at her shaking! This is insanity.”
“She might need the money, Ariel,” it was put forward, in another nod to the never-ending row over fighter pay.
“That may be true, and I hope it’s not the case, but she looked like a corpse up there,” Helwani answered.
“[It] just can’t be healthy to let someone in that shape compete in a fight less than 36 hours later.”
ABOVE: 12th July 2019 BELOW: Ten minutes ago
Aspen Ladd was allowed to fight after a scary moment on the scales in 2019 (lost via TKO in the first round) and just had another scary moment.
She should be pulled from the card tomorrow ASAP. #UFCVegas38
But those with good memories reminded us how this isn’t the first time that Ladd has struggled to make weight.
“Had to check the date on this tweet to make sure this was today and not footage of the last time we saw Ladd in a scary situation on the scale. This sh*t is hard to watch, especially when it starts to feel habitual,” said ex-The Athletic scribe Ben Fowlkes.
That “last time” occurred in 2019, when Ladd labored to make the limit and was then knocked out after just 16 seconds of the first round in her only loss in the UFC to Germaine de Randamie.
Later on Friday, Ladd herself took to Instagram to explain to fans, revealing that the unfortunate scenes on the scales had come from her starting her menstrual cycle just before her weight cut.
“Fight is off. Again. All my fault,” Ladd wrote.
“Straight up started my period 2 days back and made this cut absolutely miserable. Did the best I could, hit 137, the scale situation was a mess because the last thing I wanted was to bleed in front of the media.
“The fight wasn’t pulled, my opponent then decided she would rather not go through with it, as is her right. I’m going to get slammed regardless, so let it begin.”
