There is no limit to the whining of Ukrainian athletes. This time they wrote a letter to the International Skating Union (ISU) demanding that Russian skaters not be allowed to compete in any status.
Ukrainians want to finish off figure skating? suffers without Russian athletes. The fall in the level of competition is so obvious that even Western media do not argue about it. Our figure skaters won six medals at last year's Beijing Olympics, two of which were gold. In second place in this mini standings is the United States with three awards and only one gold. The sport has lost a country that sets trends. Let's not forget that many other countries are represented by former Russians.
All this led to the fact that the European Championship scheduled for next year will not be held in Budapest. The organizers admitted that they simply do not have money because of the severe energy crisis. Obviously, the Hungarian side realized that the Russians, most likely, would not be allowed to the tournament, so it makes no sense to host the competition. And hardly anyone can blame them for this.But the Ukrainian side will not calm down in any way. She sent a letter to the ISU Athletes' Commission demanding that Russia not be allowed to participate in international tournaments in any status. The letter was signed by Anna Khnychenkova, who is the head of the commission of athletes of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation, and Canadian Eric Radford from ISU should consider it.
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«We hope that the Athletes' Committee will support our idea of a total ban on the participation of Russian athletes and officials in all ISU-sanctioned events until the end of hostilities,» reads the letter, quoted by Reuters.
Initiative out of nowhere
Ukraine sent a demand specifically to the name of a Canadian, since a huge Ukrainian diaspora lives in this country. They will certainly support this initiative. Another thing is that globally ISU should not give a damn about such letters.
Let's take the World Figure Skating Championships, which took place in March 2022 in Montpellier without Russian athletes. What did the Ukrainians show there? In the men's singles, the last, 23rd place was taken by Ivan Shmuratko. Single women did not have a single representative of Ukraine at all. In pairs and dances, the Ukrainians withdrew from the tournament after short programs. This year, the best achievement of the Ukrainians was the 19th place in ice dancing. That's all. No one in their right mind would talk about the importance of Ukrainian figure skating.
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"Such calls can only play a negative role. I do not think so (that the ISU listens to the statements of Ukrainian athletes, and they influence decision-making — ed.). I think that next year Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in international competitions,» Tatyana Tarasova, Honored Coach of the USSR, told Sports. time, however, she is certainly right that the ISU will not waste time calling for a country that does not represent anything in this sport.