Should an athlete of the Russian national team receive a salary if he does not compete, but only performs in a show or even change sports citizenship? The discussion on this topic was generated by the departure of the figure skaters of the Russian national team Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin to the national team of Georgia. The author Sport calls to pay attention to the infringement of the rights of less eminent guys.
The money spent on training an athlete at the level of the Russian national team, at the suggestion of the head coach of the figure skating team Elena Chaikovskaya, became the main argument in favor of allowing/not allowing to change sports citizenship. Say, we spent so much on one (Dario Chirizano) that it’s just indecent to even talk, so we don’t let go. And the others (Davis/Smolkin) didn't spend a dime — so good luck.
At the same time, in the answer of the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation to the question about the financing of the couple in the 2022/23 season, which was at the disposal, it is said that Diana and Gleb received money from the federal budget. What is the question, but even if we are talking only about salary, it is hardly ethical to talk about «no money». After all, these are amounts that can reach up to 100 thousand rubles a month.From this moment on, the conversation about money moves from the plane of «climbing into someone else's pocket» to «analyzing the feasibility of spending.» No, of course, it never occurs to anyone to accuse anyone of misappropriation. It's about getting into the national team, thanks to which salaries arise, the purchase of equipment and costumes and other expenses at the state expense.
Here we have a number of contradictory points. Firstly, everything happens according to approved criteria, that is, strictly based on the sports results shown last season. But if we open the composition of the Russian national figure skating team for the last season, then out of more than 100 athletes, we can count at least 14 who either did not compete at all or interrupted participation in competitions for various reasons.
Even if we take four of them out of the brackets (dance duets Irina Khavronina/Dario Chirizano and Annabel Morozova/David Narizhny broke up by the new year, but each of them individually still had reason to retain the team’s headquarters), then here are nine significant names for you : Anna Shcherbakova, Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov, Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin, Daria Pavlyuchenko/Denis Khodykin and, in fact, Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin.
What unites them, in addition to the place in the main team? None of them had a single start last season. And what's more — apparently, was not even going to. Shcherbakova notified the public (and, obviously, the federation) in advance that she would have knee surgery, after which she was clearly not up to the competition, Pavlyuchenko/Khodykin desperately tried to get in shape after injuries and not fall apart (unsuccessfully), Davis/Smolkin processed various documents in all sorts of ways. countries of the world and even openly declared that “skating for years inside Russia is probably not very attractive for us”, Stepanova has been preparing for the birth of her daughter since the summer, and Sinitsina/Katsalapov made a conscious choice in favor of ice shows.
br>Did the federation understand this? Undoubtedly. Nevertheless, they ended up on the lists of the Russian national team, thanks to which, in addition to the salary, you can get such things as new skates that are necessary for participating in competitions (professional skaters break them on average every three to four months, and the cost of a new pair is from 100 thousand rubles), costumes for programs, etc. And if the above-mentioned skaters really received at least skates, on which they then skated ice shows instead of competitions, can this be considered expedient expenses? And if they didn’t need equipment, then why did they include the guys in the national team at all?
From this follows, perhaps, the key question in this whole story — do we really need to support in every possible way the already wealthy and not without impressive income from ice shows and/or advertising contracts, athletes who do not want to compete at the moment? Even in the above list of nine names, there are three Olympic champions at once (Katsalapov is generally two-time) and a world champion, and the rest, most likely, have already managed to earn prize money in their careers. It is unlikely that the financial situation of any of them would have been seriously shaken without a salary in the national team, and they did not have the costs of preparing for competitions, which are also compensated by subsidies from the Ministry of Sports, because they did not compete.
In fact, this problem is long overdue, but now it seems to be becoming relevant again. A place in the Russian national figure skating team turned into a comfortable pension for the well-deserved champions, who, of course, «didn't go anywhere», but in fact they weren't even going to come to the competitive ice. For example, after winning the 2014 Olympics, Adelina Sotnikova took a one-year break, after which she unsuccessfully tried to resume her career, but still retained her place in the national team for some time. And Alina Zagitova, who last competed in December 2019, was on the main team of the national team at the start of the 2020/21 season. Although the 2018 Olympic champion apparently had no plans to return.
At the same time, of course, no one wants to let our wonderful athletes around the world. It's just that there should probably be some difference between the support of those who need it, and gratuitous sponsorship for past merits. Because in the same season-2020/21 Alina had the right to the same skates at the state expense to participate in competitions, which she was definitely not going to. And even if we assume that she did not receive the inventory and the skates went to those who really needed them (although it is not very clear how this is possible legally), the question «why is all this» still remains relevant?
The difference between these cases from the past and what we faced this offseason is that now, due to the issues of not the most, perhaps justified presence of individual skaters in the national team, a situation akin to a conflict of interest has arisen. Not to mention the fact that in the fall Smolkin said that he and his partner could not use the money from the salary for the season, since Russian cards did not work in the USA, where they lived at that moment. Without imposing my will, of course, on anyone, I will try to carefully ask a question — wouldn’t it be better if, perhaps, less talented skaters, but who were at least ready to participate in competitions here and now, got them?
Commenting for Sport24 on the financing of Davis/Smolkin, State Duma deputy Dmitry Svishchev mentioned that a week ago the issue of introducing mandatory compensation for the funds spent by the state on the training of an athlete who wants to change sports was considered. citizenship. This step looks more or less justified and logical. However, at the same time, I would like the legislators to pay attention to the issue of the national team . Because it is quite obvious that we took a wrong turn here some time ago.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.