“Everybody wants to compete on the world stage”
Ilya Averbukh, who won a silver medal in figure skating at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, spoke about the ban on Russian representatives from competing in international competitions in many sports. He did not rule out that many athletes, and especially figure skaters, would seek ways to withdraw and consider the possibility of changing their sporting citizenship.
“We need to be in the orbit of world sports and I hope the situation will be resolved as soon as possible and we will perform together. Isolation never supports progress.
Also, I’m sure if the problem is not fixed, [фигуристы] will start looking for options to play for other countries.
Because everyone wants to compete on the world stage, ”Averbukh quotes,“Match TV».
You can’t say, “Gentlemen, let’s wait three or four years”.
The famous athlete Maria Butyrskaya, who became the first Russian world champion in figure skating, reacted to these words. In an interview with socialbites.ca, she admitted that such situations are possible in figure skating, because young athletes perform in this sport, because it is important for each career year.
“It is very difficult to discuss this issue right now. Figure skating is a fairly “young” sport. Those who had to win gold medals at the World Championships, Europe, Grand Prix stages are now suspended. And time does not wait. Girls and boys, I feel so sorry for all our athletes, it’s just humane.
Time is irreversible. You can’t say, “Gentlemen, let’s wait three or four years, everything will be fine and you will perform”.
This will not work so I think someone will look for other options, this is not excluded. But whether they want to see our athletes in other countries is also a question, ”says Butyrskaya.
At the same time, she noted that in Russia women are the highest competition in single figure skating. And that’s why many girls leave to play for other countries.
“We have an incredible competition, we stand above everyone else in women’s figure skating that there is no one close,” Champion said.
“The Best Don’t Leave”
Speaking about Russian sports in general, Butyrskaya expressed confidence that the strongest athletes will not leave our country. He has no doubt that the change of citizenship in other sports is primarily due to an inability to withstand competition. At the same time, the expert emphasized that those who left deprived themselves of the opportunity to truly fight for medals, leaving them only the opportunity to participate in international competitions, nothing more.
“Transitions to other countries will definitely be selective. And the best will not go. It has always been like this: Unable to compete in our country, he was looking for an easy way to participate in the World and European Championships and the Olympic Games. It was, and when I was skating. People had the opportunity to play for Azerbaijan, for Belarus – I can name many. But this usually does not result in anything good, none of these athletes achieved anything, did not win and did not stand on the podium.
They just joined – well done, great, well done. In other words, this will not concern the best athletes, but those who cannot compete in our country.”
Butyrskaya concluded.
“There is no exit in gymnastics”
Svetlana Khorkina, two-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics, commented on the situation. She stated that there is no case of an athlete leaving abroad in this sport. Khorkina also expressed the opinion that the Minister of Sports Oleg Matytsin should talk about it, since he has the most complete information about what is happening.
“We are now starting the Russian championship in artistic gymnastics. Almost everyone competing in the Olympic Games and our reserve will participate in this competition. for our sport [оттока атлетов] invisible. And if we talk about Russian sports in general, I think it would be more correct to ask the Minister of Sports. I think he has objective information, Khorkina told socialbites.ca.
Dropping figure skaters and biathletes
This may seem paradoxical to some, but historically the situation is such that Russians change their sports citizenship more often than representatives of other countries. And indeed, in terms of the number of such crossings, where the competition is really fierce, figure skating ranks first.
At the Beijing Olympics, we saw five Russian singles skaters on the ice under the flags of other states.
Ekaterina Kurakova represents Poland, Anastasia Gubanova Georgia, Ekaterina Ryabova Azerbaijan, Anastasia Shabotova Ukraine, Victoria Safonova Belarus. There are Russians who have changed their citizenship in other figure disciplines. Separately, it is worth mentioning Georgian athletes Maurice Kvitelashvili, Luka Berulava and George Revia. Despite being ethnic Georgians, they were all born in Russia.
Many biathletes left Russia, and here it is more difficult to explain turnover by competition, given that the Russian team has not shined in this sport for a long time. On the contrary, they leave to win, and the brightest examples of this are the examples of Anastasia Kuzmina and Daria Domracheva. Although Daria was born in Minsk, she moved to Russia as a child and started her sports career under her banner. And Anastasia is the older sister of Sochi-2014 champion Anton Shipulin, who joined the Slovakia flag after he left with his family to live in this country.
If the cases of Kuzmina and Domracheva are a thing of the past, then let’s return to the Tokyo Olympics. Although it is worthy of recognition, the Russian “legionaries” did not achieve great success there, nevertheless there were a lot of them. Nikita Lobastov, Elena Kruchinkina (both from Belarus), Natalya Ushkina (Romania), Maxim Makarov, Mikhail Usov, Alina Stremous (all from Moldova), Timofey Lapshin (Korea) competed on the track in the capital of Japan.
Those who left Russia in 2022
In fact, the exclusion of Russia from the world sports agenda has not yet created a huge athlete output, and as Maria Butyrskaya points out, there is a possibility that everything will be limited to individual cases. However, they already exist.
The first of these athletes was cyclist Pavel Sivakov, who won the Alps Tour and the Tour of Poland. Against the backdrop of the current situation, he decided to play for France. It is also worth noting that he lived and studied there for quite a long time.
Another resounding episode was the passing of chess player Evgeny Romanov under the Norwegian flag. But even here, the fact that the athlete has been living in the Scandinavian country since 2013 played an important role. As Eugene himself explains, he had previously considered changing his sports citizenship, and the removal of Russians from competitions was only a catalyst. Also, how spoke Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Moscow Chess Federation, told socialbites.ca that Romanov’s departure is not a loss for Russian chess.
The situation in eSports has really become a tangible blow. Team Spirit, which won the biggest international Dota 2 tournament last year, is preparing to go under the Serbian flag with all its might. And here the reason is not in sports sanctions, but in restrictions in Russia in general – children do not want to lose the opportunity to participate in tournaments, as there are difficulties with obtaining visas and flights.
Who changed his sports citizenship to Russian?
However, many cases can be recalled when foreigners received Russian citizenship. Here, Roy Jones Jr., who arrived in Russia at the end of their career. or Jeff Monson in detail. It is much more important that other athletes from abroad achieve really serious success by performing under the Russian tricolor.
This also happened in figure skating.
Over the past ten years, everyone has been so impressed by Tatyana Volosozhar’s performances paired with Maxim Trankov and her victories at the Sochi Olympics that few remember: Tatyana is a native of Dnepropetrovsk, a four-time champion of Ukraine paired with Stanislav Morozov.
But when his partner ended his career, the athlete moved to Russia.
How can you not remember the brilliant Yuko Kawaguchi, two-time European champion, two-time bronze medalist of the world championships. He won all his international awards in the status of a Russian skater – by the way, he is still in St. She lives in St. Petersburg.
Speaking of Olympic champions, it would be unfair to ignore the heroes of the Sochi Games – Korean short scout Ahn Hyun-soo, whom we know as Victor Ahn, and American snowboarder Vic Wilde. Together, they won five Olympic awards of the highest standard in 2014. An remained the leader of the Russian national team until the end of his career, and Wilde, among other things, lived 10 years in a marriage with Alena Zavarzina. After her divorce, she performed at the Beijing 2022 Olympics and conquered bronze. Let’s also remember the champion of Rio 2016 in the modern pentathlon Alexandra LesunaPlaying for Belarus until 2008. And the list is not limited to these names.