Kazakhstan skaters appeal for help with unfair expulsion

[noeleyle]

Kazakhstan ice dancers Gaukhar Nauryzova and Boisangur Datiev appeal to the president and athletes representing Kazakhstan, being expelled from the national team and lacking necessary financial support:

We earn money ourselves without recovering from training in order to represent our country in the international arena. And the federation illegally excludes from the national team.
Everyone knows that we are the only couple in Kazakhstan. Everyone knows that only we and the single skater Mikhail Shaidorov were able to qualify for the senior world championship 2022.
In our country, ice dancing is not developed at all. One might even say “do not exist”. And we are fighting this, we want to develop this type of figure skating in Kazakhstan. And we believe that for the development of our pair and all this discipline, we need support from the federation and the ministry of sports. But the current federation does not even want to try to help us. Throughout our joint career with @bosik.datiev, we have never received support and funding from the federation.
After the Worlds, Boisangur came to get the citizenship of Kazakhstan, but all to no avail although he has been ready for 6 years to accept it. The Federation has no interest in helping this problem. Also, the head coach of Kazakhstan, after our debut at Worlds, tried to enroll us in the full-time team. Because according to all the results of last season, we should be there. But this also failed.
In July, the news came that the executive director of the federation sent a letter to the committee to ... even expel me from the national team. According to all laws on physical culture and sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, this decision is illegal.
We want to be heard! We want the federation to act legally and help its athletes!

I'm not fluent in English, but I have not seen a thread discussing this. I believe this issue is serious and should be noticed by all; therefore I open this thread hoping for more attention.

 

[noeleyle]

The Kazakhstan skating federation commented yesterday on this message, and today the ice dancers gave their reply, pointing out inaccuracies in the comment.

Yesterday's response of the federation is based on deceit and inaccuracies, just to relieve itself of all responsibility and discredit us. But we are attaching official documents as evidence of our correctness and the lies of their yesterday's answer.

We spent four months waiting for the solution of our problems in Kazakhstan without appropriate training, but there is no result, it only gets worse. We missed all the preparations for the first season of the Olympic cycle. Because of this, we will miss most of the competition this year. It's already August and we don't have competitive programs for the season that has already started! We are not asking for a salary, we are asking for help to pay for our training activities and support us!

 

[noeleyle]

I'll try to translate the details of the response here.

First, the Kazakhstan skating federation says:

According to the official source of the International Skating Union (hereinafter - ISU), Nauryzova G., Datiyev B. participated in two international competitions, in the Junior World Championships in 2018, where they took 27th place out of 28 places and in the World Championships in 2022, where they were 31 of 31 participants .
At the Spartakiad, the Republic of Kazakhstan was not awarded either a medal or a diploma, as they participated out of competition due to the lack of citizenship of ONE OF the participants and the participation of only one dance couple.

And the skaters show a screenshot from the ISU official website proving they've participated in MORE than two international competitions. Also, they give a protocol of competition to show they DID participate officially in the Spartakiad, and not outside the competition.

 

[surimi]

This is really sad to hear. I haven't seen the documents and the federation's reply, but it somehow reminds me of the Swedish Olympic committee which was dismissing skaters who they thought had no medal chances...

 

[noeleyle]

This is really sad to hear. I haven't seen the documents and the federation's reply, but it somehow reminds me of the Swedish Olympic committee which was dismissing skaters who they thought had no medal chances...

This is a bit different. They are also cutting the fund for Mikhail Shaidorov, the reigning JWC silver medalist who lost only to Malinin and the only JWC medalist in KAZ history. Not even Denis Ten ever won a JWC medal before.
Some even say that Shaidorov is also expelled. I contacted him yesterday and he replied he wasn't sure.

 

[noeleyle]

Second, the federation says:

Nauryzova G. and Datiyev B. could not be excluded from the lists of the National Team in the 2022-2023 season, since they were not members of it initially, in addition, they were not included in the lists of the National Team from 2019.

According to the Rules for the formation of national and full-time national teams, the lists of the National Team are approved by the authorized body annually before June 1 of the current year, and prior to approval by the Federation, a letter was sent to the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan on exclusion from the list of Nauryzov, B. Datiyev due to the lack of citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan from B. Datiyev.

The skaters answer:

In the appeal, we only talked about me (Gauhar Nauryzova), that I was excluded from the national team. We did not mention Boysangur.

The federation says that I have not been in the national team since 2019. We here attach an order FROM the Ministry of Culture and Sports and a letter FROM the federation about my enrollment in the national team (again sorry I can't attach the pic here)

 

[Anna K.]

This is a bit different. They are also cutting the fund for Mikhail Shaidorov, the reigning JWC silver medalist who lost only to Malinin and the only JWC medalist in KAZ history. Not even Denis Ten ever won a JWC medal before.
Some even say that Shaidorov is also expelled. I contacted him yesterday and he replied he wasn't sure.

This is shocking. What's going on?

 

[noeleyle]

Third, the federation says:

The authorized body sent a request to extend the residence permit of Datiev B., however, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan refused due to the existing violation of the migration legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in accordance with subparagraph 13 of Article 49 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Population Migration", which in turn is a disrespect for the national legislation of our country.

Thus, the allegations of Datiyev B. about the lack of support for obtaining citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan are not substantiated.

At the same time, we note that all the requirements of the legislation in the field of migration are the same for everyone who wants to obtain citizenship of our country.

The skaters answer:

In the appeal, we say that we applied for help to ISU and the federation regarding the extension of the residence permit and got NO RESULTS. Not that there were no actions. Boisangur's violation is that he has not appeared in Kazakhstan for more than 6 months. But we only have one competition per year (in KAZ) for our sport. The rest of the time are spent at training and competitions. In connection with this situation, we asked for support, BUT As a result, his residence permit was canceled.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

This is a bit different. They are also cutting the fund for Mikhail Shaidorov, the reigning JWC silver medalist who lost only to Malinin and the only JWC medalist in KAZ history. Not even Denis Ten ever won a JWC medal before.
Some even say that Shaidorov is also expelled. I contacted him yesterday and he replied he wasn't sure.

What is going on? Who is even still getting funded?

 

[noeleyle]

Last, the federation says:

Along with this, we inform you that on the basis of ISU Communiqué No. 2469 dated April 25, 2022, restrictions on participation in international competitions have been introduced for athletes representing the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.

The skaters here give an ISU certificate dated November 6, 2016, proving that from this date Boisangur can officially represent the National Skating Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan with Partner Gaukhar Nauryzova. The skaters claim that this certificate is a confirmation that Boisangur does not belong to Russian or Belarusian athletes.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

What exactly is going on in the Kazakh Fed? Can someone give more background information? I remember there were also some shenanigans with their junior men last season.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Last, the federation says:

The skaters here give an ISU certificate dated November 6, 2016, proving that from this date Boisangur can officially represent the National Skating Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan with Partner Gaukhar Nauryzova. The skaters claim that this certificate is a confirmation that Boisangur does not belong to Russian or Belarusian athletes.

Lots of skaters who are Russian citizens are representing other feds and still competing internationally. This shouldn't be an issue at all, sounds more like a cheap excuse.

 

[noeleyle]

I contacted with Shaidorov last night, and got the following messages:

We have big difficulties associated with funding and support from the national federation.

(About Gaukhar and Boisik) I am familiar with the situation and we are friends, their problem is also serious.

I asked wherher Gaukhar and Bosik are still in the national team, and he replied:

I don't know

Sorry I couldn't help but said I thought things would be easier for KAZ skaters nowadays with the establishment of d10 foundation, and was heartbroken when he replied:

Unfortunately no...

 

[noeleyle]

What exactly is going on in the Kazakh Fed? Can someone give more background information? I remember there were also some shenanigans with their junior men last season.

I'm familiar with that report. I'll try if I can translate more. Basically there were people accusing KAZ fed, d10 foundation and d10 academy for having double standards. Tursynbaeva came to say that the fed sent a bad skater to compete instead of Shaidorov, costing KAZ to lose its spots at OG. But Shaidorov's coach Urmanov replied later that this was not true and they themselves gave up the opportunity due to Shaidorov's injury. They had funds from the fed in that year's 4CC.

 

[noeleyle]

Here is an interview with N/D and Shaidorov about this issue, in Russian.
I try to translate some:

The federation of this sport does not want to deal with the issues, instead decided to deprive Shaidorov of funding, and simply put others out of the national team.

Gaukhar and Boisik:

We don’t understand their motivation ourselves, so the moment has come when we need to speak publicly so that it comes to them. They want to expel me from the national team, although last season they said that if we qualify for the Worlds, they will help. We were selected, but nothing has changed, everything has become even worse. In the letters of expulsion, they refer to the fact that my partner is Russian. But nowhere in the legislation is it written that the team should be enrolled in pairs. All this began to happen after the arrival of new leaders of the federation. They, apparently, just want to erase our discipline, ice dancing.

The journalist asked:

Previously, problems in Kazakhstani figure skating were associated with Oksana Ten (Denis Ten's mother, referring to the issue mentioned above about junior men, where some accuse her of centralization). Is she somehow involved in this?

Gaukhar answered:

She lost her post after the election. And it only got worse.

 

[noeleyle]

Journalist: How do you earn after training?
Gaukhar: Tricks. The Federation does not invest in athletes. I know that recently we have got strong sponsors, one might say, like Gazprom in Russia, but most of the money is allocated to short trackers. They get to travel abroad for training camps. And they don't contact us. We hope that we will be able to reach them. We are supported by figure skaters, the Union of Athletes, the public. We will fight, I was born in Kazakhstan, I want to represent this country and develop sports in our country.

 

[noeleyle]

Mikhail Shaidorov supported the appeal. He, for a moment, is the vice-world champion among juniors and this year is going to seniors. Considering that Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu are not on the list of active skaters this season, there are no Russians either, the group of leaders has compressed, and any strong middle player can catch a medal of the top tournament with proper progress. However, the student of Alexei Urmanov does not get help to train:

“There are really a lot of problems in figure skating in Kazakhstan, the guys (ice dancers) are great fellows for speaking out,” said Shaidorov, "I support them. The sports structures, the federation shift responsibility to each other, but no one does anything. I have funding problems."

- Could this be due to the fact that you train in Russia? The dancers have problems due to the fact that the partner is Russian.

"I don't think it's related. And I was born in Kazakhstan, and still no one does anything. That is, I am on my own! And in the first half of the summer, my preparations were completely disrupted. Now it seems like they started to decide, but, in fact, nothing changes. In June, I almost did not train at all - nowhere. You have to pay a lot of money for this, but I have nothing. I don’t have to earn extra money yet, my parents help me, but it’s just so hard for us. We need to make it public. I do not want to raise a resonance because of myself, but everyone is really tired."

 

[noeleyle]

I'll keep up with the follow-ups.

But srsly I was cracked when I heard this I honestly believed with the new built Denis Ten Academy and Denis Ten Foundation things are getting better in KAZ FS. And now ...
What's the foundation doing anyway Denis would be so pissed

 

[surimi]

This is bizzarre as much as outrageous. What game are these Fed people playing? Why are they attempting to remove their currently best skaters? Who do they intend to supplant them with, if anyone?
I'd think the ISU can look into this. But aren't they the same, prioritizing speed skating over figure skating? Honestly, these two sports should each by governed by its own body, they shouldn't be one organization. This way, FS always seems to get the short end of the stick.
I hope the negative publicity can achieve something positive.

 

[AlexBreeze]

Here's Stanislav Shaidorov's (former Kazakh champion and Mikhail's dad) interview that he gave right after JWC. I posted it earlier in Misha's fan fest, but I think it should be here too.

Text of the interview

[About funding and a public rink]
'The last week of preparation before Worlds was very difficult. Mikhail was preparing at a rink in Krasnaya Polyana, fifty kilometers from Adler where we live. The rink is open daily for public with two breaks for ice resurfacing. And so daily overcoming the distance and all sorts of adversities, Mikhail and Alexei Evgenievich Urmanov went to training and prepared for the World Junior Championships. It should be understood that they were training among ordinary people who came to skate at the rink. You ask why? It's all very simple. The sports functionaries in the Republic of Kazakhstan must somehow participate in the allocation of funds for the preparation of the athlete. Nobody wants to do it. Everyone is comfortable as it is, as I understand it. I've written more than once, the only figure skater of this level in Kazakhstan has absolutely no funds for training. Everything at our own expense. A Russian team of coaches under the direction of Alexei Evgenievich Urmanov coaches (Mikhail) and ISU helps. Moreover, all the spending on Worlds was at our own expense. Visa expenses were at the parents' expense, and the tickets and hotel accommodation were paid by coach Urmanov from his own funds. The parents just don't have money for these things anymore. Of course, they promised to return, but the question is when? Worlds is already over. Think about it: Worlds, a historic silver medal, the face of the country without this country's participation. Here's the other side of the medal. Everyone is cheering, writing "great", aha. It's clear that we need to move forward, but how? If the teams that came to WС and didn't even make the free, figuratively speaking, from Zimbabwe are fully equipped from A to Z, and it's understandable, they're the face of the country they represent. And we still buy laces for our money, let alone everything else. If someone looks closely at the skates Mikhail uses, I think he'll wonder how this is even possible. There's no support, no help, no funding at all. All season we go hat in hand and ask for at least some financial support. The Federation helps a little, allocates money for travel, but the NOC was completely absent this season. There's no support from the country at all. I think it's beyond the pale. Misha gets a scholarship to sports school which barely covers his food and bus fare to practice.'

[About visa for Senior Worlds]
'The situation was like this. First, I found out who would be responsible for financing for Worlds. It was the NOC. Naturally, this NOC didn't allocate money for the preparation of the athlete. I don't think they were going to give Mikhail anything at all. They sent an injured athlete to astra (alludes to "Per aspera ad astra") back in June 2021 and suspened him from the national team. An invitation to the competition has been requested since February 25. First, one came, but it was not for the embassy. The French side, that is the organizers, sent the correct invitation for the embassy on March 13, and the championship began on the 21. When I asked the head of the NOC team whether they would pay for the visa expenses or not, I was told yes. Believing them, I borrowed money, as the amount for our family is very large because we had to fly urgently to Moscow to submit documents. On the first day we couldn't appeal to the embassy, as application was only available at April 02. Our coach, Alexei Urmanov, contacted everyone he could: the ISU Technical Committee, the competition organizers. All of them sent requests directly to the embassy. And only after that I received a phone call from the French Embassy and was told what to do. We've been accepted at the embassy at the third day of being in Moscow and we submitted our documents then. We did our best. For three days the athlete was running around the embassy, not training. We were sure that the visa would be given to Mikhail and we returned home in a positive mood. I note that all this was done at my own expense during the last week of preparations for Worlds. On March 21, the passport came out of the embassy with a visa denial. The reason written in the paper issued by the embassy: "Insufficient grounds for entry into the country". Given how many requests and invitations there were, I don't know what other grounds for entry there should be. I guess an invitation from President Macron was needed, but, alas, he couldn't be reached. I've sent all the documents to the NOC accounting office. I haven't received any reimbursement of my money yet. I'm waiting. I'm still in debt. I don't know who is to blame and whose fault it is, but we did our best. God knows. We are all living under the same sky.'