Fernanda Russo wins gold, breaks down: “We need funding, medal table lies” | OneFootball

Fernanda Russo climbed to the top of the podium once again: she won the gold medal in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event at the Santa Fe 2026 South American Games and then broke down in tears as she called for support for Argentine sport.

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“The situation amateur sport is going through right now is very sad. The medal table is misleading — we are where we are only because Argentinians have guts and ovaries. We win with our hearts, but we need money,” she said in an interview with TyC Sports after the medal ceremony.

“I want to thank everyone watching us from behind a screen, and this sport, which may not have much visibility but has a tremendous amount of grit and effort behind it. Hopefully tomorrow, when I’m on the other side, I’ll be able to do something to help future generations,” the Argentine shooter added.

Fernanda Russo — who also won gold alongside Julián Gutiérrez in the mixed team 10-meter air rifle event — insisted on her call for support and even went so far as to say that “the medal table is misleading.”

“We’re missing a whole lot of Cindor to be able to determine what the grit an amateur athlete in Argentina puts in is worth, or how much it’s worth. Even so, we thank ENARD and the Argentine Army, which today is my main support,” she said. And she added bluntly: “We win with our hearts, but we still need money. If this is a visible enough space for me to ask, please, that we think about restoring the 1% for sports development, I hope it helps.”

In that regard, Russo said that “the medal table is misleading” and that the Argentine delegation is doing “what it can.” “We understand that sport is not a priority public policy, and that’s understandable, but we also have to understand how much a person who legislates earns,” she said. And she concluded: “The situation we’re living through right now is very sad. Today we’re still second in the medal table, behind Brazil, which is a world power, because Argentinians have guts and ovaries.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.