Five-time European champion and winner of world championships in short Sofya Prosvirnova told the track that she would change Russian citizenship to Danish. The head of the Russian Skating Union (SKR) Nikolai Gulyaev assures that this is not a political decision. However, in any case, domestic sports have lost an important person in the Olympic form.
Why Prosvirnova left Sophia was initially considered a great talent and confirmed the advances given by successful performances at the international level. A lot of medals at major tournaments have become proof of this. However, at the Olympics, Prosvirnova did not ask. At the Games in China, the best result of the Russian woman was reaching the semi-finals at a distance of 1500 m. Despite this, the short track skater remained one of the best, if not the best, in Russia.
The athlete missed the last season. During this time, she managed to marry the Dane Viktor Torup. This fact opened up for her the possibility of changing citizenship, which Sophia took advantage of.
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"The reality is that under the Russian flag I am obliged to stay and train in the country. This forces Viktor and I to return to a long-distance relationship and be away from the family. The truth is, at this stage, I'm not ready to make that kind of sacrifice. Values are changing. Now building a family and my mental health are on par with my career. This leads to the decision to change sports citizenship. At the moment I am in the process of transferring to the Danish national team,» Prosvirnova wrote on social networks.
The trend is alarming. The head of the ICR, Gulyaev, urged not to look for political overtones in the transition of the athlete. He also told interesting details of the «transfer». Sofia is going to compete for Denmark not in short track, but in big skates.
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"This is Sophia's decision. She married more than a year ago to a Dane, and she wants to be with her husband. It is almost impossible to combine training and performances in Russia with family life. This is not a political story. What right do I have to prevent the reunion of two hearts? She will compete for Denmark not in short track, but in big skates,” said Gulyaev Sport.
Perhaps family circumstances really became the main reason for leaving Russia. Maybe the athlete simply left the country in search of a better life. The fact is that Russia has lost a champion, which will not be easy to replace.
Earlier, world chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk changed her citizenship and will now represent Switzerland. Her colleagues did the same. Alina Kashlinskaya and Alexandra Maltsevskaya will play for Poland, and Yevgeny Romanov for Norway. Figure skater Natalya Zabiyako became Canadian, cyclist Pavel Sivakov became French, hockey player Evgeny Skachkov became Romanian, tennis player Varvara Gracheva became French.
This is not a complete list of Russian athletes who changed their citizenship. So far, such shoots have not become widespread. However, the trend for our sport is alarming.