MOSCOW, Aug 14, Pavel Levkovich. Olympic figure skating coach Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, Alexander Zhulin said that he made an erroneous statement that the dance couple ended their career after «misunderstanding the fake news on the Internet.» On Sunday, Zhulin said that the duo ended their sports career due to loss of motivation after the removal of Russians from international competitions. Soon, Sinitsina and Katsalapov denied the information about the end of their careers. «I misunderstood the fake news that appeared somewhere on the Internet. Nikita already called me back and said that he had not said anything like that. Accordingly, someone wrote it for him. Since I trust him and know him, I thought: if such a decision was made, then this is their decision. In fact, he did not say anything like that. It turned out to be a completely incomprehensible and stupid situation. It all started with some news on the Internet, which turned out to be fake,” said Zhulin. Sinitsina is 27 years old, Katsalapov is 31 years old. The skaters have been performing together since 2014 and as a duo became world champions (in 2021), two-time European champions (2020, 2022), champions of the Beijing Olympic Games (2022) in team competitions, silver medalists of the Beijing Games in dance, winners of the world team championship (2021). Katsalapov is also the 2014 Olympic champion in team competitions. The Council of the International Skating Union (ISU) on March 1, against the backdrop of events in Ukraine, suspended Russian and Belarusian figure skaters, speed skaters and short track skaters from participating in international tournaments. In June, the ISU Congress approved this decision, it will remain in effect until further notice.
