Kavaguti and Smirnov will go for Pyeongchang 2018 | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Kavaguti and Smirnov will go for Pyeongchang 2018

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
As someone else pointed out - in Russia they are not likely to make it out of the internal fight to get to the Worlds/Olympics stage.

Here's a thought (I'll admit I don't watch a ton of pairs so feel free to correct me if I'm way off base) Yuko is originally from Japan, could they go compete for Japan? Japan doesn't seem to be all that strong in Pairs, their pair didn't even advance to the FS at Sochi.

Not only has she given up her Japanese citizenship, the original reason/problem which caused this action still exists, i.e. Japan's Pairs issue lies with lack of decent male partners. Same situation for Takahashi but she would not give up her citizenship.
 

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Not only has she given up her Japanese citizenship, the original reason/problem which caused this action still exists, i.e. Japan's Pairs issue lies with lack of decent male partners. Same situation for Takahashi but she would not give up her citizenship.

So could Smirnov not apply for Japanese citizenship?
 

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Both partners could apply for citizenship elsewhere and skate for a different country, since Japan is difficult to get citizenship and Russia is going to be difficult to get to a Worlds or Olympics level considering the competition.
 

tulosai

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Japanese citizenship is just about the most difficult in the world to obtain and the easiest to lose. Ask Tran.

The 'real' reason Tran couldn't get it is that Japan is FIRM in their 5 years continuous residency requirement and he was living and training in Canada. If he'd been willing to live and train in Japan, things might have been different. He was unwilling to do the basic first step to getting citizenship there- a step that is almost never (or possibly absolutely ever) waived. This is the same thing that is likely to stop him from getting US citizenship now.

You also have to learn Japanese, pass written and oral interviews/tests in Japanese, and renounce any other citizenship.

In all honesty, I don't think that citizenship there is really harder to get than in many other countries at least on paper. The difference is they are extremely strict in applying the rules and also that many people aren't willing to surrender another citizenship or go through the (very difficult and arduous for western language speakers) process of learning Japanese well enough for a written and oral test.
 

anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
The 'real' reason Tran couldn't get it is that Japan is FIRM in their 5 years continuous residency requirement and he was living and training in Canada. If he'd been willing to live and train in Japan, things might have been different. He was unwilling to do the basic first step to getting citizenship there- a step that is almost never (or possibly absolutely ever) waived. This is the same thing that is likely to stop him from getting US citizenship now.

You also have to learn Japanese, pass written and oral interviews/tests in Japanese, and renounce any other citizenship.

In all honesty, I don't think that citizenship there is really harder to get than in many other countries at least on paper. The difference is they are extremely strict in applying the rules and also that many people aren't willing to surrender another citizenship or go through the (very difficult and arduous for western language speakers) process of learning Japanese well enough for a written and oral test.

And they also don't allow dual citizenship, so he would have to give up his Canadian citizenship, which he had to consider as well.
 

blue_idealist

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
They probably won't beat V/T and S/K, but I don't see why they couldn't still be Russia's #3. They've only been off the ice for not even a year.
 
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