New passport, new flag
They can be understood. The age of an athlete is short, every year of inactivity, that is, it begins only at the internal level, is fraught with a loss of competitiveness, a decline in form, and financial losses. Large prize money was lacking during this time, for example, the Tokyo Olympic champion in the high jump Maria Lasitskene, who had not been equaled in the international arena for years.
According to RG, he is not going to change his citizenship yet, although some of our well-known athletes already compete under a different banner or intend to. For example, the former world chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk now represents Switzerland, the pair of figure skaters Diana Davis – Gleb Smolkin will soon start skating for Georgia, there is talk of the probable transition under the flag of France of the young tennis player Mirra Andreeva, who made a scandal at Wimbledon.
Major in reserve in the Canary Islands
The news about the choice of a new flag by our athletes in July faded into the background.
The focus was on two-time Olympic champion, holder of 28 world records in pole vault, Yelena Isinbayeva, who retired seven years ago. The reason for a heated discussion in society was a post on her personal page on the social network, which a member of the International Olympic Committee Athletes Commission Isinbayeva wrote immediately after the IOC withheld her status based on the results of an audit by the Ethics Commission. “The IOC Ethics Commission concluded that from February 24, 2022 to the present, Isinbayeva had no contractual ties to the Russian military or law enforcement and did not support the SVO in Ukraine,” the IOC press service said.
“Already in September I am resuming my activities in the IOC, since there are no doubts about me and I do not fall under any article or sanction,” Isinbayeva wrote. Along the way, she responded to the Spanish journalists who found her living in the Canary Islands and were outraged: why does a person with the rank of major in the RF Armed Forces have a residence permit in a NATO country?
Here are the main excerpts from the multiple world record holder’s post: “In Russia, like in any other country in Europe, all athletes belong to one or another sports club. Until 2018, I played for CSKA.
The two-time Olympic champion in her career updated 28 (!) times world records in pole vault. Photo: EPA
Criticism and excuses.
The reaction to Isinbayeva’s words in Russia was instantaneous, stormy and contradictory – from harsh criticism and even accusations of treason to balanced comments, where attention was paid only to the recklessness of words about military rank and service in the ranks of the RF Armed Forces. Since 2003, Isinbayeva has risen from ensign to captain in contract military service. In 2015 she signed a contract with CSKA, a few days later she received the rank of major and the post of athletics instructor.
“Everyone who loves their country will react negatively to such statements. It is unacceptable to treat in this way the military rank and citizenship, to the events that are taking place in their country”, said Oleg Matytsin, Minister of Sports.
A well-known biathlete in the recent past and also a two-time Olympic champion, Svetlana Ishmuratova, in an interview with Match TV, said harsher and more specific: “A person receives another military rank, state awards from the Minister of Defense, is photographed in a military uniform, and then says this? This is nonsense.”
The pole vault legend was born and lived for a long time in Volgograd, and his father is a native of Dagestan. In 2017, the Trud stadium in the republic’s capital Makhachkala was named after Elena Isinbayeva. Now the head of the region, Sergey Melikov, instructs to rename the arena. “The statements of the athlete behind the cordon are a serious signal and a reason to reconsider the name of the stadium,” he explained his position.
In general, regarding Isinbayeva’s stay abroad, there is a clear exaggeration in the reviews. In fact, in the prime of her career, she lived for a long time in Monaco, and this did not harm anyone. The hotheads had to calm down in the Kremlin. “Not knowing what we are talking about, we fell on the athlete, whom we were recently proud of. She did not condemn anything, did not criticize anyone, fulfills her duties. The place where she lives is absolutely not important. Our anthem has been played in her honor so many times that this should be remembered and not forgotten,” TASS quoted Press Secretary to the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov as saying.
As for the words about the “nominality” of military rank and service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the head of the Russian Wrestling Federation, Olympic champion Mikhail Mamiashvili, correctly noted here. He recalled that in many countries athletes represent clubs of the army and the police throughout their career, but they do not run around the training grounds and do not catch criminals, but solve their tasks in sports arenas. “Let Isinbayeva say carelessly, but why are we breaking the chain?” – asks Mamiashvili.
The discussion about Isinbayeva’s words has not ended, the most controversial opinions continue to sound.
Meanwhile
The State Duma Committee for Physical Culture and Sports has begun to prepare a bill on the mandatory payment of compensation by athletes who change citizenship. Previously, athletes, as a rule, moved to neighboring countries mainly due to the fact that they could not get into the main Russian team, there are many such cases in biathlon or tennis, where a whole galaxy of our players plays for Kazakhstan. With the beginning of the NWO, the trend changed, more and more transitions to countries from the list of hostile countries. Athletes who change the flag should offset the costs of their professional training in Russia, according to the state Duma. Without waiting for the approval of the law, figure skaters Davis and Smolkina, under the Georgian flag, on their own initiative paid compensation to the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR), and she transferred the received funds to the federal Sports Training Center (CSP).
