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

[caseyedwards]

Yep. Eteri's entrants in pairs, dance and men all had disappointing results. She has no magic wand; just the ability to convert through starvation and doping, an unlimited supply of prepubescent girls into jumping machines.

These aren’t even her best students. All her best are banned for life

 

[Sylvia]

Rosie DiManno's column for the Toronto Star after the ISU's annual press conference at Worlds (March 22):

Rosie DiManno: There’s a dark side to figure skating that can’t be ignored

A rape allegation. A teen skater drugged. Russia and Belarus skaters competing during the war with Ukraine. Officials at this week’s worlds have had a lot to answer for.

www.thestar.com

Excerpts relevant to this thread:

In the last day, dozens of Russian cruise missiles have struck the Ukraine capital of Kyiv. The International Skating Union expressly banned Russians from participating in any of their sanctioned events, over Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Yet there are upwards of 20 Russian-born, Russian-coached and Russians who train in Russia competing at this event.

In the matter of athletes from Ukraine who’ve experienced extreme difficulty training at home as their country has been bombarded — even travelling to Montreal was an arduous process — the ISU has actually been harsher on Russian athletes than the International Olympic Committee, which has ruled Russians can compete at the Paris Games this summer as “individual neutral athletes’’ with no flag, no anthem, no national insignias. On Tuesday, the IOC also announced that athletes from Russia (and war ally Belarus) will be barred from participating in the opening ceremonies.
“The war in Ukraine is very tragic,’’ said [ISU president Jae Youl] Kim. “Since the outbreak of the war, the ISU has been very clear on our stance, but at the same time providing all the support we can to the skaters in the Ukraine.’’
ISU director general Colin Smith added that the governing body met with Ukrainian skating representatives on Thursday and “there is support going on that not everyone is aware of.’’

On Russian skaters and coaches sliding by on the legitimacy of dual citizenship: “That’s a whole different topic,’’ demurred Kim. “We’re here this week to celebrate our beautiful, incredible skaters.’’

 

[Karen-W]

Rosie DiManno's column for the Toronto Star after the ISU's annual press conference at Worlds (March 22):

Rosie DiManno: There’s a dark side to figure skating that can’t be ignored

A rape allegation. A teen skater drugged. Russia and Belarus skaters competing during the war with Ukraine. Officials at this week’s worlds have had a lot to answer for.

www.thestar.com

Excerpts relevant to this thread:

That gives me a fair bit of hope/faith that the ISU does not have any plans on lifting the ban anytime soon. I suspect whatever appetite some int'l sports feds may have had will have cooled due to the IOC's announcement/press release last week.

 

[caseyedwards]

They banned and permanently expelled a nationality and a nation! are they supposed to ban an ethnicity? Thats what people are declaring here!

 

[divan]

russians just hit Odesa with ballistic missiles a few hours ago and damaged the main practice ice rink in Odesa ("Palace of Sports"). Luckily, kids who were at the practice went to the bomb shelter on time and were safe. Here are a video and a photo from the inside:

Skate Ukraine

Main Odesa ice rink was damaged today during another russian missile strike on the city. Kids went to the bomb shelter on time and were safe. #russiaisaterroriststate

www.facebook.com

Lately they started targeting power infrastructure again, trying to cut electricity of the whole cities. Kharkiv is the most damaged one as of today.

Here is a full track of ongoing russian missile attacks on Odesa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odesa_strikes_(2022–present)

 

[2sk8]

russians just hit Odesa with ballistic missiles a few hours ago and damaged the main practice ice rink in Odesa ("Palace of Sports"). Luckily, kids who were at the practice went to the bomb shelter on time and were safe. Here are a video and a photo from the inside:

Skate Ukraine

Main Odesa ice rink was damaged today during another russian missile strike on the city. Kids went to the bomb shelter on time and were safe. #russiaisaterroriststate

www.facebook.com

Lately they started targeting power infrastructure again, trying to cut electricity to the whole cities. Kharkiv is the most damaged one as of today.

Here is a full track of ongoing russian missile attacks on Odesa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odesa_strikes_(2022–present)

Thank you for sharing this update. Was on a call with people in Odessa today that ended abruptly as they too rushed to a bomb shelter. I sincerely hope the ban is not lifted, as little of a difference as it may make to those living through these senseless attacks.

 

[PRlady]

That gives me a fair bit of hope/faith that the ISU does not have any plans on lifting the ban anytime soon. I suspect whatever appetite some int'l sports feds may have had will have cooled due to the IOC's announcement/press release last week.

Me, too. But Russians skating for non-Russian countries are in a different category. Despite asshats bragging on the internet, a Russian skating for Georgia or the Netherlands or Italy isn't going to be standing next to Putin as an amplifier for Russian propaganda. I don't fault Volodin for wanting a good partner, he had some bad luck in Russia that had nothing to do with politics. Kurakova left Russia long ago, Davis has legitimate US citizenship, Ponamarenko, Malinin et al are of Russian ancestry but have spent their whole lives in the US, as far as I know Memola is a genuine Italian, some of the Baltic skaters have Russian names but if they're good enough for those rabidly anti-Russian countries, they're good enough for me. So lumping them all together isn't fair.

And Rosie is something of a jerk in general.

 

[divan]

But Russians skating for non-Russian countries are in a different category.

Yes and no. Our skaters complain sometimes that some of those migrated russian skaters a making pro-war statements (not publicly of course). It pisses them off and makes participation in ISU events really uncomfortable. But some, especially those who migrated long time ago, are the opposite and openly supporting Ukraine.

Legally, it's extremely hard to ban people based on their origin. ISU operates under the Switzerland legal code, so shall comply with the laws. I don't think they enjoy the thought of a multi-year legal battle in CAS over this.

But, I think, it would be enough to add the rule that prohibits transfers from russia. To my knowledge, the EU doesn't have a legal framework for terrorist state lists, but they did declare russia as a state sponsor of terrorists in November 2022. Maybe this could work. It should be noted that western and russian sports systems are drastically different – while sports enjoy autonomy in developed countries and is built on top of grassroots non-profit clubs, in russia sports is fully government-sponsored and there is no autonomy whatsoever. Like, russians won't understand what 'non-profit sports club' even means. Every russian athlete belongs to and represents this government, regardless of whether they aware of it or not.

At the latest ISU Congress in Phuket, the legal reason for banning russians wasn't a war per se. It was a duty of ISU to protect athletes at the events and the risk of a fight between Ukrainian athletes and russian gnomes for earning medals for putin. And this risk is still in place with all those newly migrated mentally-russian athletes who changed flags. It may very well happen at any of ISU events, and it'll be ugly.

 

[airgelaal]

Figure skaters who live and train in russia finance the russian economy in one way or another. So I don’t understand how they can be “outside politics.”
But what I don’t understand even more are foreign athletes (not ex-russians) who continue to train in russia.
I understand that it is difficult to ban all this legally. But these situations are not even actively talked about, it is kept silent.

 

[caseyedwards]

Saying to people who train in Russia -because of the ice rinks there- that they have to move to a whole new country if they want to stay in the sport goes beyond the total expulsion and permanent banning of Russia and Russian nationals they are doing.

 

[airgelaal]

Saying to people who train in Russia -because of the ice rinks there- that they have to move to a whole new country if they want to stay in the sport goes beyond the total expulsion and permanent banning of Russia and Russian nationals they are doing.

This is exactly what russia did to Ukrainian skaters.

 

[caseyedwards]

This is exactly what russia did to Ukrainian skaters.

Yes and Russia is banned forever but would the ISU pay for a Georgian team to train in America rather than Russia?

 

[airgelaal]

Yes and Russia is banned forever but would the ISU pay for a Georgian team to train in America rather than Russia?

Does the ISU pay for Ukrainian skaters?

 

[caseyedwards]

Does the ISU pay for Ukrainian skaters?

Yes

The International Skating Union (ISU) has supported the Skating Federations of Ukraine since the start of the war, implementing ISU Communication 2469, and also granting financial support to assist Ukrainian Skaters. The ISU reiterates its sympathy for and solidarity to all affected by the War in Ukraine.Jun

 

[airgelaal]

From the last interview with Golubtsova and Belobrov

About additional work​

• Golubtsova: "We work as coaches. But we still lack [funds] for accommodation."
• Belobrov: "Last summer we received Skate Canada licenses. We are trying to find more opportunities to train. I used to work in food delivery."

But in fact, this is a common story for skaters from many countries. And only ex-russians do not want to lose their maximum comfort and choose to live and train in a terrorist country.

 

[airgelaal]

Yes

The International Skating Union (ISU) has supported the Skating Federations of Ukraine since the start of the war, implementing ISU Communication 2469, and also granting financial support to assist Ukrainian Skaters. The ISU reiterates its sympathy for and solidarity to all affected by the War in Ukraine.Jun

No, they don't pay for them. It's just "financial support to assist"

 

[airgelaal]

Fun discussion. "Georgians" D/S are training in the USA. They trained in the USA even when they were russians. Paying for their training doesn't seem to bother anyone. Now you will tell me that parents pay for them. Who are parents? A coach who earns money in russia.
Or should ISU pay for them too?

 

[Karen-W]

Fun discussion. "Georgians" D/S are training in the USA. They trained in the USA even when they were russians. Paying for their training doesn't seem to bother anyone. Now you will tell me that parents pay for them. Who are parents? A coach who earns money in russia.
Or should ISU pay for them too?

Well, one of the parents is a coach who earns money in Russia. The other has a parent who is an actor...

 

[Lil Sarah]

Saying to people who train in Russia -because of the ice rinks there- that they have to move to a whole new country if they want to stay in the sport goes beyond the total expulsion and permanent banning of Russia and Russian nationals they are doing.

I mean... we could hit their ice rinks with missiles so they can't train there?

 

[On My Own]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1786555786144944638

Here's this off-season's and maybe the next season's incessant drama.

 

[Sylvia]

^^^ To add some context to the above, Benoit Richaud recently choreographed programs for Russian-born Polina Dzsumanyijazova (HUN) and her coach Leonid Sviridenko posted this from their time in New Jersey (Adam is in photo #2): https://www.instagram.com/p/C6i_X6huX-2/

 

[Alilou]

^^^ To add some context to the above, Benoit Richaud recently choreographed programs for Russian-born Polina Dzsumanyijazova (HUN) and her coach Leonid Sviridenko posted this from their time in New Jersey (Adam is in photo #2): https://www.instagram.com/p/C6i_X6huX-2/

Context or not he needs to get a clue.

 

[On My Own]

Polina Dzsumanyijazova

And they say Asian names are hard to pronounce...

 

[tony]

Context or not he needs to get a clue.

He can have his opinions and feel for athletes that he's gone through the ranks with and actually knows instead of being told how he should feel, maybe?

 

[Alilou]

He can have his opinions and feel for athletes that he's gone through the ranks with and actually knows instead of being told how he should feel, maybe?

So many Russian athletes have publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine. I think at best it was stupid of him to say so publicly, at worst unconscionable that he doesn't see, and support, the bigger picture. So yeah Adam, get a clue.

 

[On My Own]

Ukrainian twitter seems to have found it now.

 

[Karen-W]

So many Russian athletes have publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine. I think at best it was stupid of him to say so publicly, at worst unconscionable that he doesn't see, and support, the bigger picture. So yeah Adam, get a clue.

I think there's a bit of a difference between thinking that individual athletes shouldn't be banned because of politics and thinking that a country & its athletes should be banned because said country's government chose to violate the spirit of the Olympic truce and invade another country just days after the Olympics ended and days before the Paralympics started.

Should we ban any athlete who expresses a political opinion we don't agree with? Nope. Should we ban any country from participating in international competition as long as its government has committed what is widely regarded as an illegal invasion of another country? Absolutely.

The IOC (well, really Bach) lost the plot in trying to tread some middle ground path in allowing "Individual Neutral Athletes" from Russia and Belarus to participate in the Olympics as long as they either disavowed the invasion of Ukraine or at least kept their mouths shut for the past two years if they do support their government. In allowing that middle ground path to exist, it opens up the question of whether or not an individual athlete should be punished for expressing any political opinion. Are we going to ban athletes who loudly oppose transgender athletes participating in women's sports? Are we going to ban athletes who believe in jailing anyone who uses any drugs (even recreationally smoking marijuana)? Are we going to ban athletes who support various politicians or lawfully elected governments (eg - Xi, Milei, etc)? The reason for the Russian and Belarusian ban is because of what Putin and Lukashenko have done to Ukraine and there simply should not have been any middle ground path offered by the IOC because that only muddies up the waters and allows the philosophical discussion to shift from horror and a resolute unacceptance of the illegal invasion of another country to the political views of individual athletes.

In that regard, I can understand where Adam is coming at this from and I don't, fundamentally, disagree with him. The problem is that this was not the reason for the ban and he does seem, like the IOC, to have allowed himself to forget that critical plot point.

 

[Alilou]

I think there's a bit of a difference between thinking that individual athletes shouldn't be banned because of politics and thinking that a country & its athletes should be banned because said country's government chose to violate the spirit of the Olympic truce and invade another country just days after the Olympics ended and days before the Paralympics started.

Should we ban any athlete who expresses a political opinion we don't agree with? Nope. Should we ban any country from participating in international competition as long as its government has committed what is widely regarded as an illegal invasion of another country? Absolutely.

The IOC (well, really Bach) lost the plot in trying to tread some middle ground path in allowing "Individual Neutral Athletes" from Russia and Belarus to participate in the Olympics as long as they either disavowed the invasion of Ukraine or at least kept their mouths shut for the past two years if they do support their government. In allowing that middle ground path to exist, it opens up the question of whether or not an individual athlete should be punished for expressing any political opinion. Are we going to ban athletes who loudly oppose transgender athletes participating in women's sports? Are we going to ban athletes who believe in jailing anyone who uses any drugs (even recreationally smoking marijuana)? Are we going to ban athletes who support various politicians or lawfully elected governments (eg - Xi, Milei, etc)? The reason for the Russian and Belarusian ban is because of what Putin and Lukashenko have done to Ukraine and there simply should not have been any middle ground path offered by the IOC because that only muddies up the waters and allows the philosophical discussion to shift from horror and a resolute unacceptance of the illegal invasion of another country to the political views of individual athletes.

In that regard, I can understand where Adam is coming at this from and I don't, fundamentally, disagree with him. The problem is that this was not the reason for the ban and he does seem, like the IOC, to have allowed himself to forget that critical plot point.

I agree there never should have been a middle ground. I keep likening it to South Africa and Apartheid. The entire country was banned from everything for years, as it should have been, and no doubt there were plenty of Sth African athletes who missed out, but because there was no middle ground there was no space for individual athletes to speak out.
I'm thinking Adam will get a lot of pushback from this.

 

[ajingmarg]

I mean... we could hit their ice rinks with missiles so they can't train there?

Are you encouraging nuclear wars to happen?????

 

[Hedwig]

Are you encouraging nuclear wars to happen?????

The poster was saying it ironically since Russia targets sports centers and ice rinks specifically.
War crimes upon war crimes comitted by Russia

Very disappointing comment from Adam who is not seeing the big picture here.