Isabella Tobias & Ilia Tkachenko Team Up For Israel

anyanka · Jul 8, 2014

There's been little coverage of this asides from a picture on the IFS magazine's Facebook page and this article (there are a few more, but none in English):

http://www.olimpiazzurra.com/2014/0...ra-cambio-di-nazionalita-per-tobiastkachenko/

There's also a small fan page on Facebook that was started up on July 6, 2014:

https://www.facebook.com/tobiastkachenko?fref=ts

Thoughts? Lots of questions from me, including:

- Who will have to acquire new citizenship? One or both partners?
- Where shall the pair train? He was last training with Katya in Odintsovo and she was last training in Novi, Michigan.
- Who will coach the pair? Will he move to the US so that her coach Igor Shpilband will coach them? (They'll share ice time with Cappellini / Lanotte?)
- How are they covering their finances? I understand that Isabella is from a very wealthy family.
- Will the Russian skating federation release Ilia?
- When will they actually compete, as they will have to sit out one year due to the change in nationality?

alebi · Jul 9, 2014

according to neveitalia (http://www.neveitalia.it/sport/figu...ta-giorni-di-pattinaggio-di-figura-in-pillole) Isabella seems to have Israel's origins but if they're really going to compete for Israele they'll have to skip next season

my thoughts? LOL... she can really do everything with money :think:

Buttercup · Jul 9, 2014

alebi said:
according to neveitalia (http://www.neveitalia.it/sport/figu...ta-giorni-di-pattinaggio-di-figura-in-pillole) Isabella seems to have Israel's origins but if they're really going to compete for Israele they'll have to skip next season

my thoughts? LOL... she can really do everything with money :think:

Actually, if Tobias has the requisite Jewish ancestry, she doesn't need money; Israeli citizenship would be very easy for her to obtain. Tkachenko would have a far more difficult time of it, however.

dorispulaski · Jul 9, 2014

I take it that Tkachenko does not have Jewish ancestry, say on his mother's side?

chuckm · Jul 9, 2014

Only one partner has to have citizenship to compete at Worlds, though.
The question is why Israel? Would Russia be more amenable to releasing Tkachenko to skate for Israel than for Lithuania?

blue_idealist · Jul 9, 2014

Yeah, that is funny that they didn't just go for Lithuania because I don't think they'd have much competition there, either, and Isabella just got citizenship there.

hanca · Jul 10, 2014

chuckm said:
Only one partner has to have citizenship to compete at Worlds, though.

That's not correct. To represent a country at GP events/Europeans/Worlds no one needs citizenship. But they both need citizenship if they wanted to go to Olympics.

hanca · Jul 10, 2014

blue_idealist said:
Yeah, that is funny that they didn't just go for Lithuania because I don't think they'd have much competition there, either, and Isabella just got citizenship there.

The question is whether Russian Federation would release him to skate for Lithuania. I read somewhere here on the forum that there are not very warm relationships between Russian and Lithuanian skating federations. Whereas Russian Federation is quite happily releasing skaters to skate for Israel (e.g. Shelepen got released pretty quickly).

blue_idealist · Jul 11, 2014

hanca said:
The question is whether Russian Federation would release him to skate for Lithuania. I read somewhere here on the forum that there are not very warm relationships between Russian and Lithuanian skating federations. Whereas Russian Federation is quite happily releasing skaters to skate for Israel (e.g. Shelepen got released pretty quickly).

Ah, ok.

alebi · Jul 11, 2014

hanca said:
The question is whether Russian Federation would release him to skate for Lithuania. I read somewhere here on the forum that there are not very warm relationships between Russian and Lithuanian skating federations. Whereas Russian Federation is quite happily releasing skaters to skate for Israel (e.g. Shelepen got released pretty quickly).

This can be the reason why she changed from Lithuania to Israel when the fed worked so hard to grant Lithuanian citizenship. Maybe they already know that for a Russian skater this is impossible.

MalloryArcher · Jul 12, 2014

I wonder if she wants to make another go for the Olympics? Will that give her 3 passports now? Isn't there some limit to how many passports you can hold at one time? Perhaps she will need to renounce one (I assume Lithuanian).

Any word on whether Ilja has the required Jewish ancestry for Israeli citizenship? This would be a strange choice if not.

Pixie Cut · Jul 13, 2014

MalloryArcher said:
I wonder if she wants to make another go for the Olympics? Will that give her 3 passports now? Isn't there some limit to how many passports you can hold at one time? Perhaps she will need to renounce one (I assume Lithuanian).

Any word on whether Ilja has the required Jewish ancestry for Israeli citizenship? This would be a strange choice if not.

Ilia does not need to have Jewish ancestry. Israel will recognize the team based on her background. However, to get citizenship, he will have to join the Israeli army, which he may not want to do. As I recall, that was largely ceremonial for Sergei Sakhnovsky, who was half Jewish, but it's still a very really commitment.

alebi · Jul 14, 2014

Mmmh... what you're saying makes me think this couple won't have a very long life =/

Robin26 · Jul 14, 2014

hanca said:
That's not correct. To represent a country at GP events/Europeans/Worlds no one needs citizenship. But they both need citizenship if they wanted to go to Olympics.

To represent a country at europeans and worlds one partner of a team needs citizenship. It is required at credentialing. Both for Olympics!!

Robin26 · Jul 14, 2014

Pixie Cut said:
Ilia does not need to have Jewish ancestry. Israel will recognize the team based on her background. However, to get citizenship, he will have to join the Israeli army, which he may not want to do. As I recall, that was largely ceremonial for Sergei Sakhnovsky, who was half Jewish, but it's still a very really commitment.

He only needs to join the army if hes under 21.

hanca · Jul 14, 2014

Robin26 said:
To represent a country at europeans and worlds one partner of a team needs citizenship. It is required at credentialing. Both for Olympics!!

There were plenty of skaters who represented a country at Europeans/worlds without having citizenship.

carriecmu0503 · Jul 14, 2014

hanca said:
There were plenty of skaters who represented a country at Europeans/worlds without having citizenship.

Can you give an example of a pair or dance team who skated at Europeans/ Worlds where neither partner had citizenship in the country they represented?

Mattieu · Jul 14, 2014

carriecmu0503 said:
Can you give an example of a pair or dance team who skated at Europeans/ Worlds where neither partner had citizenship in the country they represented?

You cannot skate in ISU competitions unless one of the team has citizenship of the country they are representing

alebi · Jul 14, 2014

hanca said:
There were plenty of skaters who represented a country at Europeans/worlds without having citizenship.

This is true if their partner has citizenship. But it's not enough for Olympics, in fact Tobias, Ziganshina, Guignard and many more I don't recall were in trouble till the end. Popova is an example of one who took part to many Euro/World but couldn't join the Olympics.

Tangoer · Jul 14, 2014

Mattieu said:
You cannot skate in ISU competitions unless one of the team has citizenship of the country they are representing

What if a team has two skaters from two different countries who have permanent residency status or residency in a third country where the live/work/train? Say two Europeans with Visas/Residency in the US skating for the US?

I am sure IT/IT have figured out their issues regarding both of their citizenship, it would be far too risky to take this route publicly if they had not.

Isabella Tobias & Ilia Tkachenko Team Up For Israel

anyanka

alebi

Buttercup

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl

chuckm

blue_idealist

hanca

hanca

blue_idealist

alebi

MalloryArcher

Pixie Cut

alebi

Robin26

Robin26

hanca

carriecmu0503

Mattieu

alebi

Tangoer

Connect with us