Dance couple Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin representing Russia at the 2022 Olympics, according to American blogger Dave Liz, she is ready to change sports citizenship, presumably to Georgian. Sport explains what is happening around the daughter of the honored coach of Russia Eteri Tutberidze and the son of actor Boris Smolkin.
First of all, I would like to apologize to the guys. It must be damn unpleasant when your plans, which you were in no hurry to talk about, have already been discussed and condemned by everyone and laziness 10 thousand times. The generally normal desire to save a career and do better for oneself, without harming anyone at all, is already branded with the label of «betrayal» and other terrible words that have nothing to do with what is happening.
After all, you are not registered with the vice police and are not obliged to report on the secret within strictly regulated deadlines. But the world of media is arranged in such a way that the life of public people often does not belong to them. This is a public domain, and if people are not given a new piece of information about you in a timely manner, they will find it on their own. Agree, purely sports plans relating to a purely future career, from a long list of possible options, are far from the worst object of mass interest. And certainly not the most «jaundiced».
Well, since the secret continues to become clear, you can discuss the fateful decision openly. So, Georgia is perhaps the best of all available options. Under Diana and Gleb, an already strong team will become really strong. They have good single skaters in the person of the current European champion Anastasia Gubanova and Alina Urushadze, a solid lineup of single skaters from the group of Eteri Tutberidze — the only winner of the adult Grand Prix stage in the history of Georgia, participant in the Olympic Games Maurice Kvitelashvili (however, it is not yet clear how long his career will last ) and Nika Egadze, a potentially strong doubles group, whose reinforcements are expected in the near future.
And, of course, dancing. Previously, Maria Kazakova/Georgy Revia, once the champions of the Junior Grand Prix Final, had to answer for the entire team, whose entry to the adult level was complicated by long-term adaptation and health problems. But now, it seems, they will fade into the background and give way to leadership. And it's quite funny, because in the same 2019 Grand Prix Final where Kazakova/Revia won gold, Davis/Smolkin finished in last (6th) place.
However, the balance of power has changed since then. For three seasons of working with one of the best ice dancing coaches Igor Shpilband, Diana and Gleb reached a qualitatively new level, which was noted by many experts. Anticipating rolled eyes and dissatisfied clatter, it happened to communicate on this subject, including with unbiased specialists, some of whom can even be attributed to their competitors. It was obvious to everyone that Shpilband in a fairly short time figured out how to hide the weaknesses of the couple and reveal their individual style, the development of which in the Olympic season — their first in their adult career — had just begun.
At that time, Igor Yuryevich set an unambiguous goal for his pair — to run them in as many elite competitions as possible. Despite the fact that many then worried about the hypothetical Davis/Smolkin being dragged into the Olympic «commander» past the more honored and authoritative members of the team, Shpilband's hypothetical team gold was not at all interested. As well as Diana's mother, Eteri Tutberidze, who in this context was accused by many fans of undercover games. Colleagues say that the federation made a fundamental decision to roll the team tournament with the first numbers without substitutions immediately after the Russian championship. At the coaching council, he was supported unanimously, including Eteri Georgievna.
Instead, Shpilband, who perfectly understands the psychology of judges in dancing, looked to the future and worked for more global goals than gold on someone's tail. That season, Diana and Gleb had a great first half, became the silver medalists of the Russian Championship (after the removal of the favorites Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov), made a shocking debut at the European Championship, receiving points higher than those that were put on the first «Europe» by the legendary French Gabriele Papadakis/Guillaume Sizeron, they performed worthily in the individual tournament at the Olympics — in a word, they collected an excellent portfolio for the future. It would almost certainly start working next season, growing stronger along with the new successes of the guys. And then — who knows? It is likely that by the 2026 Olympics, Russia in their person would have received, if not a pair of favorites, then at least a contender for the top 3 or top 5.
Then the well-known events took place, dividing the lives of many into «before» and «after». Diana and Gleb faced a choice — an endless wait without any tangible prospects, or a decision for which the public can raise a pitchfork. And you can't blame them for daring to take the second step.
Apparently, soon after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the skaters began to think about bureaucratic ones, thanks to which in the future they could qualify for a transfer to another team. Western journalists wrote about Davis/Smolkin's desire to play for the USA. The skaters themselves denied this in a rather passive form, but, as far as we know, active negotiations were really conducted and stopped only before the start of the last season. The Americans eventually refused, and the motive for this decision was largely political.
Then the couple began to look for other options on the same principle — where there are chances for citizenship, without which it is impossible to compete for a new country at the Olympics. The United States in this matter was of the greatest interest to them due to the fact that Diana can claim an American passport by birthright, and Gleb — as her husband (information about the wedding of the skaters with reference to documents was published by the same Dave Liz, it was not officially confirmed).
A loophole was found in Israel. All last autumn, there were signals that Davis/Smolkin were actively working on the option of moving to this team. The reason is probably simple — this time Gleb could count on repatriation due to his pedigree, and Diana — as a wife. Then it's up to the small thing — to agree with the local federation and submit applications to all the necessary authorities.
According to , the negotiation process was not easy. The Israelis were interested in the transition of the guys, but the financial side of this issue did not fully suit the skaters. In addition, in addition to the lack of funding, Israel did not have the main thing — a large, influential federation behind it, ready to fight for its athletes in the same way as the FFKKR.
It is likely that another reason for dissatisfaction with this option could be not the highest level of the Israeli team. Due to the lack of strong athletes, she does not take part in team competitions such as the Olympic Team Tournament and the World Team Trophy, which in turn means fewer medals and potential prize money. In fact, the very young Davis/Smolkin would become for Israel not only the sole leaders of all local figure skating, but also people with whom all hopes for high places are connected. And this burden, given the above factors, could not be very pleasant.
One way or another, after some time, Israel from the main option for Davis/Smolkin turned into a secondary one. In many ways, this happened because at some point Georgia, which had previously been in a state of skepticism, approved the plans for the skaters to transfer to their national team. And it turned out that this particular option for the guys is ideal from all sides.
Firstly, it is quite easy for athletes of their level to obtain citizenship. According to the text of the law on citizenship of Georgia, the president can grant it to a person who «has success in the field of sports, science or (and) art and wishes to continue his activities on behalf of Georgia», and in this case, the applicant for a passport does not even need to know the state language and history. Without a doubt, Diana and Gleb fall into this category, and Tutberidze's personality can serve as an additional incentive to approve their application.
In addition, the Georgian federation is still considered a little more authoritative than the Israeli one. Its president, Mariam Giorgobiani, managed to create a productive system in completely unfavorable conditions — neither the lack of normal ice in Georgia, nor a severe shortage of personnel could prevent this. Probably, Davis/Smolkin saw in her person a charismatic manager who can help them in a difficult situation.
But what did the leadership of the Georgian federation see in Davis and Smolkin? The answer to this question can be obtained by looking at the composition of their national team and making sure that it consists almost entirely of athletes connected in one way or another with Russia.
Naturalization for Georgia is so far the main way to cope with the shortage of personnel in figure skating and systematically improve results. Almost certainly in the future they will have both high-quality ice arenas and a strong coaching school. After that, the level of local athletes will begin to rise, but at the moment they have to feed on reserves from Russia for a stable influx of medals, because this is the only way to prove to the higher authorities the importance of the sport for the country. By the way, Giorgobiani herself spoke about the same in an interview with Sports.ru: “The ice rink will be built for us if there are results, so I have no other options — I need to give medals.”
Can Davis/Smolkin give medals? I guess yes. Even with the absence of the last season, Diana and Gleb remain high-quality, promising young dancers with some competitive background and a solid personal record. From the point of view of the momentary result, they seem almost more preferable than Kazakova/Revia. Well, if Maria and Giorgi solve all their problems and again reach a high level, they will have a very interesting internal competition, which in the future may turn into an equal fight for high places in major tournaments.
Certainly, the Georgian federation I couldn't and wouldn't refuse it. It's always nice to have someone to choose from. Especially if one of these options goes into your hands on its own.
However, the transition, even if it is agreed, can still fail. As before, now it is entirely tied to the admission/non-admission of Russian skaters to international starts. The next ISU council, which may consider this issue, threatens to be life-changing not only for Russian sports in general, but for Davis/Smolkin's career in particular.
The meeting is scheduled for June 9-11. Very soon we will find out what the outcome of this story will be.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.