1st things 1st people keep talking about the Visa issues. I am sure there are issues but why were Nastyas Ruusian citizen coaches at Europeans in Finland and then worlds and then all 3 Russian citizen coaches from TT were at worlds in Japan? They are not as vital as Russian skaters for obvious reasons. nobody tunes in to watch coaches. If Russian skaters continue to be banned then Russian coaches need to be banned as well. It was ridiculous seeing them at these major competitions but not the athletes.
Nobody wants to see coaches instead of the greatest Wonder Woman in the history of ladies figure skating sasha at these events. either they all go or nobody goes. I don't want to see the same nonsense next season since they all have the same Russian passport.
And if the Visa issues keep Russian skaters from traveling to certain countries in Europe then you work around that or you start your own fed and move along. You can't ban Russia and Belarus and then stop them from doing their own Europeans or own worlds. They should have done that this season. Tell they should do it this summer before the next season starts if they are continued to be banned. Do a Europeans in Saint Petersburg or Moscow and do a world in Beijing at the Olympic stadium they skated at. Is I'm sure China would allow it.
I literally mentioned that Finland, China and Japan are issuing visas to Russians, but other countries that are hosting major competitions are not. The GPs are held in the
USA,
Canada,
France,
Japan,
China and
Finland (i.e. three GPs will be easily accessible for Russians, the other three will not - But that's enough with the very small amount of Russian skaters still entitled to GP spots), the GPF in
China (i.e. no issues here either). The Challengers are in
ITA,
CAN,
GER, SVK,
FIN,
HUN,
KAZ,
AUT,
POL and
CRO. Europeans are in Hungary, Junior Worlds in Taiwan and Worlds in Canada.
Also, Russian coaches do not officially represent any country and are always registered at competitions for each individual skater, which is why they can't be banned, but Russian skaters, judges and other officials can be. Now, coaches that at the very least coach in state-funded schools in Russia are not independent agents in my eyes, which is already demonstrated by the fact that some former Russian skaters who switched countries talked about how their coaches were no longer allowed to train them because they no longer represented Russia, but on paper they are only representing themselves.
Once again, I reiterate that the visa issue and the ban are completely independent issues. To the ISU, your passport doesn't matter. It only matters whether or not you are officially representing Russia as an entity (Remember the introductions when skaters take to the ice? Along the lines of "From Russia, XYZ"? Or "Representing Russia, XYZ"?) For countries issuing visas, however, your passport does matter. There's a reason none of the Georgians have run into visa issues, but the pairs from the Netherlands have. That reason is the ability, or lack thereof, to use a second, non-Russian passport.
Also, what's the use in doing a "Europeans" or "Worlds" if it's in name only? Other countries won't send skaters (or at least not their top skaters) because they would be stupid to risk their Olympic eligibility. Sure, they could try to sue to reinstate eligibility, but legal proceedings are not fast and there would be no guarantee they would win. There's another reason why other competitor organisations to the main governing body in many other sports never really took off, even when athletes were allowed to compete in other competitions without repercussions, and that is that athletes can only qualify for the Olympics through the main governing body.
While I've seen people repeatedly say that the Olympics "aren't that important anymore" and "many athletes wouldn't care if they couldn't compete at the Olympics", I disagree. The Olympics haven't lost really any of their status in sports like figure skating, with a long Olympic history which has a great influence on the organisation, and training of figure skating to this very day. It is not for nothing that a whole host of skaters retire after the Olympics, or return from retirement to have one last shot at making the Olympics.
