A 15-year-old go-kart champion apologized Monday after a gesture he made on an awards podium appeared to resemble a Nazi salute.
After snagging the top honor at the International Automobile Federation (FIA) Karting European Championship in Portugal on Sunday, Artem Severiukhin “tapped his chest and extended his right arm,” according to Huffpost. His team, Ward Racing, has already begun severing ties with the young star. Severiukhin released a video Monday, in which he apologized for his actions, citing that his gesture was not intended to be a Nazi salute and denouncing any support of the Nazi regime, according to TMZ.
“Standing on the podium, I made a gesture that many perceived as a Nazi salute, it’s not true — I have never supported Nazism and consider it one of the worst crimes against humanity,” Severiukhin said, according to TMZ.
Severiukhin appeared to be emotional in the video statement he released to the press, and clarified that he now realizes his chest beating at the podium was not “customary,” according to the video posted to social media. He went on to say “there was no support for Nazism or Facism” (RELATED: From ‘Russian Disinformation’ To ‘We Don’t Comment On The Laptop’: White House’s Messaging On Hunter Biden’s Laptop Quietly Shifts)
FIA Statement pic.twitter.com/rLIvW21PaK
— FIA (@fia) April 11, 2022
FIA released a statement Monday, indicating they “launched an immediate investigation into the unacceptable conduct of Artem Severiukhin, and declaring that “further steps will be taken in this case.”
Ward Racing also issued a statement, saying, “The actions of Artem Severiukhin during the award ceremony on 10 April 2022 were exclusively individual and do not represent the views and values of Ward Racing in any manner.
Severiukhin was racing with an Italian license, because FIA had banned all Russian competitors since the invasion on Ukraine, according to The Washington Post.