Winner of the Grand Prix Final in ice dancing Valery Angelopol, according to sources, does not have the opportunity to train after a scandalous breakup with his partner Vasilisa Kaganovskaya. Why is a talented figure skater banned from doing what he loves, actually humiliating him?
A little bit of the essence of the conflict Perhaps the most interesting thing about the resonant collapse of the Russian dance duo Vasilisa Kaganovskaya/Valery Angelopol is that society in it was not divided into two camps. Why, even the professional community overwhelmingly supported Vasilisa, from whom her partner demanded that she sign a contract with a number of financial conditions in exchange for continuing her joint career. A stupid story, watching which is both funny and sad at the same time — funny because the money for the laces came from the girl, but sad because in our figure skating this turns out to be the norm.
And Vasilisa is great for somehow drawing attention to this topic. Because, even taking into account the specifics of sports, where there are much fewer boys than girls, people in the 21st century should not be humiliated like that, because this is literally payment for access to the body without the right to choose.
At the same time, Vasilisa was not deprived of elections. Some time after the breakup of her couple with Angelopol, Dario Chirisano showed up in Moscow. At that time, he had not yet returned to his native harbor and seemed to be planning to skate for the Czech Republic with Denisa Tsimlova — and then… True, then the former coach of the former couple, Barbara Fusar-Poli, said in an interview with Sports.ru that Dario’s arrival in the capital was associated with negotiations with representatives of the FFKKR, and not with tests with Vasilisa.
It’s a coincidence that I can’t believe, but the reality is that Chirisano also negotiated with Anzhelika Krylova, Kaganovskaya’s coach, but, let’s say, his own. Therefore, upon returning to Russia, he and his new partner Elizaveta Pasechnik went to skate not with his former coach Alexei Gorshkov (although he, too, most likely, will take part in the training process), not with Alexander Zhulin and not with anyone else, namely to Krylova. Coincidence? Hardly.
But things didn’t work out with Kaganovskaya for Chirisano. Why? It’s simple — by that time Vasilisa had already found herself another, more suitable, in her opinion, partner in the person of the ex-Russian junior champion Maxim Nekrasov. On the way to forming a new couple, another one was broken up, as if in passing — Maxima with the aforementioned Pasechnik.
The thoughts that Pasechnik/Nekrasov were actually already bronze medalists of the Russian Championship, the breakup happened exactly a week before the test skates of the adult national team, and Chirisano, it turns out, did not get a chance to pass full tests at all as unnecessary, casts doubts — is it really true? Was Vasilisa a victim without the right to choose in the conflict with Angelopol? In any case, now it seems that nothing threatens her career at all.
Why was the skater punished so harshly? What about Angelopol? But with him everything is much more interesting. According to information, even before the test skates (the date of August 31 was mentioned in private conversations), all the leading dance coaches in the country received orders from the FFKKR — not to allow Angelopol on their ice in any form.
He is not allowed to keep in shape or train fully. True, the coaches themselves do not directly confirm the ban, but in our sport this is essentially the same theorem of Valery Karpin from the time of Spartak Moscow — if Valery Georgievich says that he does not know about the transfer of a football player, then he, most likely, has already signed contract.
And by that time, Valery (Angelopol, not Karpin), as far as can be understood from private conversations, had previously found a new partner — the well-known Arina Ushakova, who ended her career in 2022, after her ex-partner Maxim Nekrasov left to Pasechnik, and then go to Kaganovskaya… The bizarre world of Russian ice dancing, what else can I say.
But it turns out that Angelopolus is not allowed to go to anyone. Why? Interesting question. It is unlikely that this is due to purely sporting reasons — Valery still remains an excellent partner, and with a suitable partner his couple will still be ranked at the level of the top hopefuls. Considering the chaotic nature of our dances and the inevitable drop in level after the leaders left and the remaining duets were reshuffled, it is unlikely that any of the coaches would directly decide to take Valery to themselves.
Almost certainly we are talking about behind-the-scenes fuss with the participation of the powerful of the figure world, and this is quite Weird. Because if there was a desire to teach Valery a lesson for his character (he is indeed far from the simplest), then wouldn’t it be easier to impose some large penalties under the code of ethics and send him, on the contrary, to prove and show his level with a new partner and a new coach? Is this really worse than completely losing a person who our figure skating may very likely need in the future?
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the position of the editors.