ISU Statement on Russia's war against Ukraine - Participation in international competitions of Skaters and Officials from Russia and Belarus

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Like, I don’t get how this “exception” is okay? How easy that the hundreds of Russian athletes who generally qualify for an Olympics just happen to also renounce the Invasion and then retract after the few weeks are up? Putin or his apologists could easily rationalize that the athletes are just doing this to participate and bring honour back home.
 
Perhaps tangentially related, but the Polish gymnastics federation withdrew from the FIG congress because officials from Belarus and Russia are still being allowed to participate. Norway, Ukraine, and Estonia had already decided not to go, and Inside the Games seems to expect other countries will pull out.

I think perhaps Bach might find he ends up with an even bigger mess if he moved forward with something like this.
 
screech said:
Anyone else anticipating Putin to 'allow' athletes to publicly disavow the war in advance of Games, while continuing to voice support him in private, as long as they swear to support him publicly again once the Games are done?
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at this point no one will believe whatever they say and Putin will not be the judge. An ISU committee should be doing the investigations of each and everyone who thinks they should be allowed to compete who accept input from around the skating world on the advisability of the individuals...ie who have heard remarks or seen actions which would not make them acceptable.
 
When Russian athletes competed as OAR and ROC to avoid the doping bans, it was completely trivial. They were Russian, they competed as Russian, wore Russian colors, their successes were celebrated as Russian success in TV and at home. “Banning” them did nothing. Why would anyone advocate to once again do something that we have already seen is worthless?
 
Theatregirl1122 said:
When Russian athletes competed as OAR and ROC to avoid the doping bans, it was completely trivial. They were Russian, they competed as Russian, wore Russian colors, their successes were celebrated as Russian success in TV and at home. “Banning” them did nothing. Why would anyone advocate to once again do something that we have already seen is worthless?
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Because this is Bach and he's proven, time and time again, that he's completely bought and paid for by Russian oligarchs. The sooner his term as IOC President ends, the better. Unfortunately, that's not until 2025.
 
allezfred said:
Even when Russian skaters trained in the US it was with Russian coaches. As far as I can recall, Medvedeva was the first high profile Russian skater to be coached by a non-Russian when she went to Orser.
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Define `Russian coaches' and define `High profile'. Ilinykh spent some time with Zueva/Shpilband, Khokhlova/Andreev were, of course, coached by Zueva.
 
There was a whole era where it seemed every ice dance team had a Russian coach with the Italians and the French being the exceptions (at least with high profile teams). I think because after the 1980s, it was as if "that Russian style" was the only style that was being rewarded. Even Bourne-Kraatz, who people associate with Canada and being THE "non-Euro" team, had mostly Russian/Soviet-trained coaches during their senior career as medal contenders.

Even singles skaters from all around the world started to go to Russian ice dance coaches too or at least Russian ones even if they weren't single skaters themselves. Remember when it seemed all of the Japanese ladies moved to train abroad and Russian coaches were a big part of that? I think they went to mostly American and Russian coaches because they saw that was where the success was. Examples:

Yoshie Onda moving to Audrey Weisiger (who I felt gave her some great programs) and then moving to Josee Chouinard. She didn't get a Russian coach, but she was part of the wave of Japanese ladies going to foreign coaches during this period.

Fumie Suguri trained with Oleg Vasiliev for a while in 2004-05 but she was "ahead of her time" and the Japanese Fed didn't let her continue training with him, so she went back to Sato after Ando left him. However, she would go back to him after the 2005-06 season. Then in the 2007-08 season she went to Alexander Zhulin (who had choreographed her 06-07 programs. Apparently when she spent most of her time with Igor Pashkevich due to Zhulin being busy dealing with personal issues. Then she went to Morozov for the 08-09 season (where she qualified for Worlds for the first time since her silver medal winning 2006 appearance), then for the 09-10 season, she went to Mishin but apparently he "neglected" her and she was mostly learning from...Igor Pashkevich.

Arakawa moving to Callaghan and trained with him for like two years (I believe) and then moved to Tarasova/Platov right after the 2003-04 GPF when Sasha left Tarasova...then won Worlds but had an iffy 2004-05 season including a 9th place finish at 2005 Worlds, so moved to Morozov right before the 2006 Olympics after failing to qualify for the 05-06 GPF (but she listened to Tarasova who told her to go back to "Turandot" for Torino).

Ando left Sato and went to Carol Heiss-Jenkins having programs done by David Wilson...then getting an unfortunate haircut that aged her right before the Torino games, and then going to Morozov the next season and then...well, we know the storied history between Morozov and Ando.

Mao Asada moving to Arutunian but personal issues forcing her to go back to Japan and Rafael breaking off their coach-student relationship (which he now admits he handled incorrectly and is sorry about it since it had to do with insurance and issues of succession it sounds like after her mother's death) and then her going to Tarasova.

Even some of the men...Daisuke Takahashi was with Morosov (I don't know when he started but I remember his Morosovian programs as early as the 05-06 season) and then left after the 07-08 season.

Nobunari Oda was with Lee Barkell part-time and then moved to Morozov right when Daisuke left him, but went back to Barkell after the 2009-10 season.

But none for Yukari Nakano who stayed in Japan.

Even "America's Own" Michelle Kwan wasn't immune. After the 2002 Olympics, she started getting programs choreographed by Morozov (had Arutunian as a coach...not Russian but was probably trained under the Soviet system), and then after her worst result at Worlds in a decade (4th place!), she went to Tarasova to get her programs choreographed in preparation for the Torino games, which we know never happened.
 
VGThuy said:
Even "America's Own" Michelle Kwan wasn't immune. After the 2002 Olympics, she started getting programs choreographed by Morozov (had Arutunian as a coach...not Russian but was probably trained under the Soviet system), and then after her worst result at Worlds in a decade (4th place!), she went to Tarasova to get her programs choreographed in preparation for the Torino games, which we know never happened.
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Not probably, 100% was.
 
airgelaal said:
Maybe in the future.
I'm talking about what we've been hearing for years about how strong russian skaters are. We have been hearing for years that the participants of the russian Championship are stronger than the participants of the World Championship. But why, then, are there no serious successes for those who move to other countries? At the same time, we can recall many successful examples from other countries.
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To be fair, it is not surprising that not many Russians who skate for other countries are not so strong. Many Canadians and US skaters skating for other countries are not so strong either. The reason is, if someone was a strong skater, they would probably stay in their country and manage to push through. If someone wants to leave (and I am talking particularly about single skaters), the reason is that they can’t get through in their country because they are not strong enough. Of course, in pairs and ice dance it can be also that one couldn’t find a partner, but singles skaters are mostly switching either if the whole family moved to that country, or if they needed less competition to get through.
 
Oct. 13 article:
www.insidethegames.biz

Russian Sports Minister denies knowledge of athlete military detachment plans

Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin has said he is not aware of reported plans to create volunteer military detachments of professional athletes as...
www.insidethegames.biz www.insidethegames.biz
Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin has said he is not aware of reported plans to create volunteer military detachments of professional athletes as the nation continues its war against Ukraine.
Two unnamed sources told Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti that a preliminary discussion was held on Monday (October 10) in Moscow, and it was suggested regional sports federations would initially become involved in the mobilisation process.
However, Matytsin insisted he had no knowledge of such plans and claimed every person has the right choose whether they should serve in the army.
"The Ministry of Sports does not officially know anything about this, they learned about it from the media," Matytsin told Russia's official state news agency TASS.
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russians talk a lot about their rights, but they don't want to talk about the rights of others. The rights of other athletes immediately become politics.
Now Ukraine has big problems with energy. And russia does not even hide that she is trying to destroy the energy infrastructure. Ice rinks don't work anymore. All other athletes train only in daylight. How about their rights?
I do not want to see a single russian athlete in international competitions until all Ukrainian athletes return to Ukraine and can train normally in the usual conditions.
 
airgelaal said:
russians talk a lot about their rights, but they don't want to talk about the rights of others. The rights of other athletes immediately become politics.
Now Ukraine has big problems with energy. And russia does not even hide that she is trying to destroy the energy infrastructure. Ice rinks don't work anymore. All other athletes train only in daylight. How about their rights?
I do not want to see a single russian athlete in international competitions until all Ukrainian athletes return to Ukraine and can train normally in the usual conditions.
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Compensation for damage to training facilities, and venues, as well as lost training time should be part of the consideration, within a broader compensation to Ukraine for the damage that Russia is inflicting.
 
kwanfan1818 said:
I couldn't put my finger on it, but this is a perfect description of what I think about Isabeau Levito.
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Even when I first saw her last season, it was clear who she was modeling herself after.

Eteri and Dani G. has made me think a lot about the American baby ballerinas of the 2000s who were kind of like that...they had such perfect toe-point, back flexibility, turn-out, 180 degree splits, had that School of American Ballet look, posture, carriage....but then they would high kick their Lutzes, get a bit lazy in-between the "ta da" moves with their carriage, look a bit sloppy or gangly when they weren't hitting their perfect positions, possibly not have the speed/power of their more senior competitors, their skating skills were clearly more shallow, among other issues.

It was less noticeable back in the day, but with the Danny G/Eteri school of over-choreography that would make even Nikolai Morosov say "show some restraint" in terms of his footwork sequences (but not much else), it all becomes a bit clearer. Tons of choreography only works with true dancers like Jason Brown with his Rohene programs, but even then some fans complained too much was going on with not enough space to let the program "breathe". If only they could have foreseen what the young women would have wrought after 2014.
 
VGThuy said:
Even when I first saw her last season, it was clear who she was modeling herself after.
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Same here, but until @Dai's Blues for Klook's description, I couldn't place exactly what was in common about them. There were exceptions, for me, anyway, but for the most part, this was the specific set of qualities they shared. (A lot like when I try to cook meat.)
 
Sorry, I still love ballet style skaters the most. My favorites have all had that style...John Curry, Peggy Flemming, Toller Cranston, Paul Wylie, Sasha Cohen for a few examples. Heck I even remember how much I loved the short career of Yukina Ota and also Marin Honda when she was a well trained junior. Gorgeous movement on the ice. Right now I'm loving Levito and Broussard at their stages of development. I don't consider Eteri's skaters to be particularly balletic. Certainly not Trusova. And Scherbakova could not point her toes or turn out. Kostornaya was no ballerina either. Though her overall package was pretty great for a time. Valieva maybe more so balletic and I did like her until the drug test.

As a ballet fan (and one who used to take ballet lessons) I can tell you achieving this kind of style is very difficult and very hard work off the ice. A top ballet dancer is a life time of work just as a top skater is. For me if you can't skate with great carriage, stretch and line, I'm not as interested, although I enjoy seeing all the different styles. My favorites are always the onces who pay attention to carriage, line and extension. I'm glad the judges still seem to appreciate it too. I have lots of skating fan friends who love Midori Ito, Tonya Harding and Kaori the most. To each his own!
 
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