After the international ban, Russian skaters tried to find other ways to compete in foreign competitions, but only a few managed to switch to another flag. Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin were released without problems, while others had to rebuild their careers and endure. It seemed like the Figure Skating Federation was deliberately putting a spoke in the wheels and holding the athletes hostage.
But suddenly the trend changed! Our officials came to their senses and released several skaters to other countries at once. Because?
FFKKR released Samodelkina, Titova, the boyfriend of Morozov and Medvedeva
Recently, the news has been filled with announcements about the transfer of Russian skaters to the flags of other countries. Those who expressed their desire to change their sports citizenship were Sofia Samodelkina, Annabelle Morozov, Sofia Titova and the couple Ekaterina Geinisch/Dmitry Chigirev. In addition, the Russian Figure Skating Federation finally agreed with each athlete.
What is already known about the first transitions?
Medvedeva’s boyfriend and Morozov’s daughter are changing their sports citizenship. What’s happening?
Despite the long saga with Samodelkina’s move to Kazakhstan, officials decided not to hold Sophia hostage and allow her to skate internationally. The same thing happened with Morozov: the FFKKR quickly removed Annabelle from the national team, allowing him to begin actively training in the United States with her new teammate Jeffrey Chen. It later became known that Gainish and Chigiryov would leave for Uzbekistan, but there were no problems with their departure either. As happened with the transfer of Plushenko’s student Sofia Titova to the Armenian national team.
How did they react in Russia to the departure of figure skaters to other countries?
The events of recent days draw attention not only for the decisions in favor of the skaters, but also for the way in which the referees reacted to what happened, without unnecessary emotions or attempts to belittle the importance of the athletes who replaced the skaters. National selection.
Ilya Averbukh and Elena Radionova wished Sofya Samodelkina success, and the head of the FFKKR Anton Sikharulidze told how things are going in reality with transition requests.
Sofia Samodelkina
Photo: Anastasia Matrosova, “Championship”
“There are few applications, but the important thing is not that some athletes want to compete for other federations. In most of the applications that come in, these guys already have passports from other countries, they live there, someone was born there. Moreover, most of these guys participated in competitions within the Russian Federation for several years, or did not participate in them at all, or these were low-level tournaments.
These transitions occurred two, three and five years ago, but no one paid attention to them because the situation was different. There are no more or fewer transitions now than before the restrictions. For us it is important that the leaders, those athletes who are important both for our spectators and for the young people, for the parents, do not cross paths. But they did not and do not intend to move anywhere.
Special cases are life. We have Annabelle Morozov, who was actually born in the United States, has American and French citizenship, and lives in the United States. Yes, she lived with us for a while and went out for a walk, but she’s American. And then how not to let her go? “There is her life,” she noted.
Did Chirisano’s sad experience force officials to change their minds?
Of course, there were specialists who, rather out of habit, feigned indifference, hinting that the departing skaters represented no value to Russia. But this pressure on athletes has become much less. Officials probably reconsidered their destructive approach, even remembering the sad experience of Darío Chirisano.
Darío Chirisano with his new partner – Elizaveta Pasechnik
Photo: RIA Novosti
The skater tried to pass under the Italian flag and then the Czech one, but the federation insisted on stopping him. At the same time, experts headed by Tatyana Tarasova shouted that the country did not need the athlete at all, although the actions of the FFKKR openly contradicted this.
As a result, the athlete was forced to break up with his partner Denisa Tsimlova and return to Russia, losing the opportunity to perform abroad. Both Denis and his coach Barbara Fusar-Poli defended Darío and asked the federation to change their mind and let him go to Italy.
The situation with Chirisano looked like a demonstrative flogging, which was supposed to set an example for figure skaters who, due to the international ban, began to look for other ways to participate in foreign competitions. But in fact, this resulted in risks to the reputation of the federation and great losses for the athletes themselves. Fortunately, our officials came to their senses and met them halfway. And this is a very beautiful trend.
More about the Cirisano case:
Stories
“Our hearts are heavy.” Darío Chirisano lost his second partner in six months
