ATHLETE FORCED TO PAINT OVER RAINBOW NAILS

The Swedish high jumper who painted her nails in rainbow colours at the Moscow World Athletics Championships in support of Russia’s LGBT community has had to repaint her nails.

Emma Green-Tregaro caused a stir last week when she competed at the event sporting the colours in protest against Russia’s new gay propaganda law.

It’s come to light that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) later warned her that her actions were in contravention of its regulations.

“We have been informally approached by the IAAF saying that this is by definition, a breach of the regulations. We have informed our athletes about this,” Anders Albertsson, general secretary of the Swedish athletics federation, told AFP.

“The code of conduct clearly states the rules do not allow any commercial or political statements during the competition,” he explained.

Albertsson insisted that it was up the athlete to decide if she wanted to break the rules. “That’s a decision she takes, we don’t have any objections on how they paint their fingernails,” Albertsson said.

Green-Tregaro chose to paint her nails in red for Saturday’s high jump final. She said in an interview that the colour was intended to represent love.

Green-Tregaro risked faced being arrested by the Russian authorities under the gay propaganda law for her protest.

She was slammed by Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva for being “disrespectful” to Russia.