Ukrainian authorities called Riskon’s conversion “categorically unacceptable” and stripped him of all medals and awards.
Published December 5, 2025
The Ukrainian Diving Federation has stripped Sofia Riskun of all her medals and awards following her decision to switch allegiance to Russia.
Riskun, who represented Ukraine at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and last year’s Paris Games, revealed the change in an interview with a Russian newspaper earlier this week.
The federation said it had not informed the federation, coaching staff or Ukraine’s Ministry of Sports about Riskon’s decision to obtain Russian citizenship.
“Such measures are categorically unacceptable,” the government said in a statement Friday.
“They discredit not only individual athletes, but the entire Ukrainian team, which selflessly fights every day for the right to represent our country on the international stage.
“The Ukrainian Diving Federation will also request the international sports organization to impose sports quarantine on this athlete in accordance with current international standards,” it added.
Riskun won gold in the 10m synchro diving for Ukraine with Ksenia Bailo at last year’s European Swimming Championships in Belgrade, and won team gold at the 2018 Glasgow Games.
The 23-year-old told Russian news agency Izvestia that all her Ukrainian coaches were gymnasts or trampoline athletes, so she switched because she was concerned about her development as an athlete.
“How can someone from a completely different field teach you something? In the past few years of playing sports in Ukraine, I realized that I was not growing,” she said.
Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from participating in the World Aquatics Championships, but as restrictions have been eased some athletes have competed as neutral athletes at the Paris Olympics.
