Olympic champion with leg injury offended at Pobeda airline

Vera Biryukova, a Russian gymnast, member of the Russian national rhythmic gymnastics team, champion of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, faced an unpleasant situation during her flight with Pobeda Airlines.

As Biryukova said in a story on her Instagram page, she bought a ticket of the Pobeda airline, and then, for an additional 2 thousand rubles, acquired a spacious XXL seat. She underwent surgery on her leg, which by the time of the flight was in an orthosis and did not bend, reports NGS55.ru.

“I checked in at the check-in counter, got my boarding pass, and they showed me the place where I need to wait for the ambulift. No signs of trouble. After some time, an employee of “Pobeda” came up and asked to see the boarding. With a dexterous movement of her hand, without saying or explaining anything, she pulled out my seat with the purchased seat for 2,000 rubles specially for the leg, and replaced it with a random seat, ”the gymnast said.

Then Vera asked the employee why she took her seat and gave another one, to which she received the answer: “Disabled people and children cannot sit in these seats.”

When the gymnast tried to get justice, she was sent to the main employee to help resolve this issue. “When asked to exchange my mother’s boarding for my bought for 2000 [рублей] it was refused because it was not allowed under the protocol. If according to the protocol it is not allowed to change boarding seats, how then did the employee replace my paid seat with a random one? Some kind of double standards are obtained, friends. And the cherry on the cake: my purchased seat was sold to another passenger, also for 2,000 rubles, ”the athlete is indignant.

As a result, the girl and her mother were seated on different sides of the plane, although, as Vera Biryukova noted, she needed an escort.