The dance duet of Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin, representing Georgia, will perform at the 2023 European Championships. press service International Skating Union (ISU).
The skaters, who spent their first years under the Georgian flag, did not compete at the Grand Prix stages this season, but took part in various “challenges”.
The European Championship will be held in Kaunas, Lithuania, between January 8-14.
After the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, Davis and Smolkin, who originally represented Russia, lived and trained in the United States. American journalist Dave Lees reported on the change of sports citizenship of athletes on June 4, and the next day the transfer of Gleb Smolkin and his partner Diana Davis to the Georgian national team was officially approved. They won the Ice Dance International tournament held in Lake Placid, USA, at the beginning of August.
Davis is the daughter of famous Russian coach Eteri Tutberidze. Last summer, journalist Liz wrote that Davis and Smolkin were tested by the US Figure Skating Federation. The couple missed all stages of the Russian Grand Prix and the Russian Championship in the 2022/23 season.
Previously ballerina Anastasia Volochkova named figure skater Alexandra Trusova “a miraculous miracle.”