The Gymnastics Ethics Foundation (GEF) Formally Opens Proceedings Against Russian Gymnast Ivan Kuliak

The Gymnastics Ethics Foundation (GEF) has formally opened proceedings against Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak, who wore the Russian pro war sym...

The Gymnastics Ethics Foundation (GEF) has formally opened proceedings against Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak, who wore the Russian pro war symbol at the 2022 Doha World Cup earlier this month, according to Russia Today.

The 20 year old gymnast showed his support for his country's invasion of Ukraine at the competition's parallel bars final, by wearing the letter Z, which is believed to be a symbol of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Kuliak, who won the bronze medal on the apparatus, continued to wear the symbol while sharing the podium with Ukrainian Illia Kovtun (gold) and Kazakh Milad Karimi (silver), who is engaged to Ukrainian gymnast Diana Varinska and has been training in Ukraine for several years.

Following the incident, the International Gymnastics Federation requested the GEF to open disciplinary proceedings against the Russian athlete.

"At the official request of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation opened disciplinary proceedings against artistic gymnast Ivan Kuliak regarding his behavior at the Gymnastics World Cup in Doha and appointed a collegium of the GEF disciplinary commission," confirmed a spokeswoman to Russian outlet TASS.

"For confidentiality reasons GEF does not disclose any details about pending or potential cases and does not comment on them during the course of the proceedings. This is important to protect the integrity of the procedure, as well as the rights of all parties involved."

"We have a dedicated disciplinary commission as well as an appeals tribunal. Disciplinary proceedings are governed by the FIG disciplinary code, as well as international and Swiss law. The results are brought to the attention of the GEF director, who is then responsible for informing all interested parties. Decisions made by the disciplinary commission and the appeals tribunal should be carried out by the International Gymnastics Federation," the spokeswoman said according to Google Translate.

The young athlete has previously said that he has no regrets and that if he had a chance to do it again, he'd do it the same. Yesterday, he posted "Whatever they do to me, I will still smile" today on his Instagram Story.