It seems that Oleg Stepko was able to receive Russian citizenship as he is currently preparing for the Russian Championships that will take place in April.
Stepko gave his first interview since leaving Azerbaijan to the Ukrainian TV show “Groshi” (Money) in a feature about Ukrainian athletes competing for other countries.
According to Stepko, Azerbaijan’s federation contacted him right after he won the gold medal on parallel bars at 2013 Euros in Moscow. He asked them to wait until the end of the year for his decision. One of the major factors influencing his decision was an arm injury that required a complicated and expensive treatment. Stepko says that in Azerbaijan, he was provided any kind of treatment he needed right away and that the federation created great conditions for sim both in terms of training and in terms of medicine. Another factor was money: in Ukraine, he could earn only up to 500-600 dollars a month. He did not disclose his salary in Azerbaijan but said that it was enough to not deprive himself of anything.
Stepko did not talk about his reasons for leaving Azerbaijan. It could be due to him not wanting to put additional strain on the relationship with the federation which still did not release him (his FIG license for Azerbaijan expires on March 18, 2018 but he might still need the federation’s permission for his nationality switch). Likewise, Stepko did not mention his reasons for moving to Russia and trying out for the Russian national team rather than Ukrainian. He has not yet been invited to any national team training camps in Russia but this can change if he has a good showing at nationals.
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