‘I’m angry at myself’: Olympic gymnastics champ still stunned after being robbed at airport
Olympic champion Anastasia Tatareva has admitted she is struggling to comprehend being robbed at an airport, with thieves stealing cash, an iPad, a MacBook and her passport before fraudulently using her debit card.
The 24-year-old, who was an all-around champion with the Russian Olympic Committee in Rio in 2016, is still reeling from the incident in which her prized possessions were pinched by robbers.
Six-time world and seven-time European queen Tatareva admitted that she "took this situation close to my heart".
"I cannot accept and understand that people are capable of this and such situations occur every day," Tatareva lamented.
"As soon as I immerse myself in that the minute when I discovered the loss, I feel uncomfortable. I am angry.
"And I'm not even angry at the thieves, but at myself. Why was I so inattentive at that second?
"I was distracted for a moment. I start [reflecting] and thinking: 'I shouldn't have sat on this bench' or 'I wanted to take the iPad out of my bag a minute before that'. If only."
Uploading another photo of herself in the cafe at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Tatareva told the story of the robbery on Saturday.
"At the airport, they took away a backpack in which, in addition to the iPad, MacBook, a wallet with cards and all the cash, there were also [documents] and a passport," she explained.
"They worked professionally; we noticed the loss too late. Of course, we immediately turned to the police at the airport – they drew up a protocol, [investigated] for a couple of hours, but the cameras did not show anything."
"We were very interested to know when exactly the [theft] was committed. About an hour later, active debits from the cards began, which we promptly blocked."
Tatareva won a silver medal in the group all-around competition at the Tokyo Games this summer.
The fashion fan often shares photos of herself with her vast social media audience, portraying her in airports, on planes and in different cities around the world – and she once asked her followers to rate her underwear and jewelry snaps.
It appears that the star has now fallen victim to one of Barcelona's most common crimes.
Pickpocketing and thieving is such a common problem in the city that graffiti scrawled at the train station in El Prat International warns passengers to be on their toes.
