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The Council of the International Skating Union (ISU) still did not pay attention to the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee allow Russians and Belarusians to participate in international competitions. Sports understand the inaction of officials.
The Russian “figurine” is still interested in the West
About a week before the “fateful” ISU council, acquaintances spoke with all its members privately — and all of them unanimously said that they did not intend to admit the Russians. If earlier there was still some semblance of discussion on this topic internally, now the issue has not even been properly considered. And why, if the common position, in fact, has already been worked out?
If we try to understand the reasons, we will inevitably touch upon politics, and we don’t want that. Therefore, in short — while the SVO is underway, figure skating, with the theoretical admission of our skaters, will stand on its hind legs. Yes, now there is no atmosphere of hatred towards Russians at international competitions. At the Junior Grand Prix stage in Bangkok, I discovered that about 1/3 of the participants spoke Russian, and no one was embarrassed about it on the sidelines. And okay, coaches — even an ordinary journalist could calmly discuss with the team leader of the US team the prospects of Ilya Malinin and tell us how we are riding in the Kurai Cups here. They are interested, by the way. They are even watching.
But this applies to individual manifestations, but if the whole team, and even with flags… I think it can be formulated thesis this way — the international community is not against “Russianness” as such. She is rather against symbolism, and in this they are already ready to act together. Even before the council, I heard rumors that several of the largest figure skating teams were discussing the possibility of boycotting the competition if we did receive admission. It is not known whether these conversations reached the ISU (knowing their “efficiency”, I admit that they did not), but nevertheless.
Why don’t they return us then?
One way or another, the bosses of world figure skating realize that the return of Russians to the international arena will create a powerful negative background — both in the media and behind the scenes. But they cannot and do not want to deal with all this. Someone will say that figure skating is dying without ours, and they will be partly right. Even the judges who are officiating at major international competitions right now admitted in a conversation with me that Russia has enough. Especially in pair skating, where now stand or fall – and this is not an abstract phraseological unit, but almost a literal retelling of almost all the performances of the current world top.
The level has dropped, and “there” they realize it. On the other hand, is it global enough to sound the alarm? In ice dancing they are doing well, and in men's singles too. Couples — yes, everything is sad. I suggest not touching the women's singles, we ourselves have something to understand.
Without the Russian national team, the level of juniors has collapsed, this is crystal-clear truth. But both internationally and in our domestic tournaments, tickets for junior competitions are either not sold at all or are not completely sold out. It turns out that the ISU does not feel the global consequences of this either personnel (yet) or financially (always).
As for “financially” in a global sense, the head coach of the Belarusian national team Oleg Vasiliev expressed an interesting thought in an interview. This is purely direct speech, from which everything becomes clear:
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«They (ISU) have more than 200 million dollars in reserves. They will earn three million dollars a year less because there are no Russians — so what? For them this is not catastrophic.»
Prospects
So, let’s repeat the question: are the ISU’s problems without the Russians big enough to ring the bell? It turns out, no. If something really bothered them, we would already be on the international stage. Fortunately, the International Olympic Committee even prepared a legal justification in the form of recommendations for admission in a neutral status — the ISU could hide behind them if they wanted. Yes, it is unlikely that this would protect them from the wave of brown substance from the dissatisfied, but isn’t the slightly higher level of adult skaters and the much higher level of juniors worth it?
Apparently, no, they are not. What, then, is waiting for the ISU? I believe there is a clearer position from the IOC. Perhaps even in the format of a pointer — either allow it or we will put a spoke in your wheels. Let’s say we won’t give the new ISU President Jae Yol Kim membership in the IOC or anything like that. Then the “withering people” could throw up their hands with an absolutely clear conscience.
But now it turns out that you don’t really want to, and are injecting yourself. And why even allow anyone in if we have such competitions that are the envy of everyone? And we don’t need the rest of the world, and our level is the highest, and our guys this year are “good as ever.” And let them sit there in their swamp!
True, each time the sincerity of these words is believed less and less.