Genrikh Gartung in a really good
interview/article with Maya Bagryantseva (frequent guest on TSL for those who watch the show) from last weekend in Oberstdorf. Translated from the Russian original with the help of DeepL and my own modest language skills. Remarks in [brackets] are by me.
***
The last Russian season for Gartung was 2022/23: Junior Cup of Russia series (7th place in Samara and 10th in Kazan), several smaller tournaments. By spring, the decision to change the national team was finalised:
"The idea is mine. I have German roots, my aunt went to Germany 20 years ago, and I used to visit her all my childhood.
So I started thinking about the transition long before the suspension of the Russian national team, and in my situation a German passport is the most logical option. But my dad always told me: ‘You can't go empty-handed, first learn the difficult jumps, otherwise why would anyone need you there?"
Genrikh doesn't have the most typical story: it's not his mum who is responsible for figure skating in the family, as it usually happens, but his dad.
"My dad sorted out all the rules and bureaucratic issues for me, even went to work in the local federation - so yes, I have always felt the support of my parents," says Genrikh.
It was Gartung Sr. who organised the transfer, so we asked him the question ‘how to get a release from the FFKR [Russian Figure Skating Federation]?’.
Transfer chronology: from the idea to the new national team jacket
April 2023. The Gartungs contacted German coach Niko Ulanovsky via social media and asked for help with the transition.
"I sent a video of Genrikh's performances and competition protocols: my son was already a Master of Sport [sports title in Russia], he was scoring decent points. We were offered to come to Oberstdorf for a viewing. Everything went well: Genrikh had already jumped the triple axel, and it was obvious that the quadruple was on its way. So the Germans were interested in him," says Artur Gartung.
July 2023. Genrikh was invited to a personal test skate in Oberstdorf. The German federation gave the green light and started the transition process.
December 2023. After waiting for the end of the one-year quarantine period, the Germans sent a request to Russia for the release of Gartung.
May 2024. The FFKR executive committee agreed to the transition.
"Now the FFKR only considers releases once a year, so of course I was worried - what if they wouldn't let Genrikh go? I remember receiving a text message during the meeting - a friend wrote that everything went through. I exhaled then, I confess," recalls Gartung Senior.
June 2024. The release authorisation reached Germany and the German federation sent another request to the ISU to register Genrikh as a German figure skater.
July 2024. All formalities are settled, Gartung is a figure skater for the German national team.
According to Genrikh, the FFKR did not interfere with the transition and did not try to dissuade him from his decision: "Let's face it: I was of no particular value to the federation, I did not show exceptional results, I did not get into the national team, so no one held me back."
It turned out, though, that Gartung left Russia as an unremarkable junior, and came to Oberstdorf as the hope of the German national team - with a triple axel and a quadruple lutz.
"I learnt both triple axel and quad lutz in Moscow from Viktoria Butsaeva. I struggled with it it for a very long time, it didn't work out. And when I did it for the first time, there was such an intense feeling of happiness. It is clear that now we need to add other quads to compete with the strongest.
In general, I have been terribly lucky: both in Moscow and in Germany I have incredible people working with me. I am very grateful to Viktoria Evgenievna [Butsaeva neè Volchkova, 4-time European bronze medallist] - in fact, she made me what I am today. I still spend a lot of time at Moskvich, we have a great team at the rink. The new free skating programme was choreographed for me by Egor Murashov and the music for it was cut by Vladimir Litvintsev, so everyone is very invested in me.
And now I also have a home base in Oberstdorf. When I come here, Niko helps me with renting a flat, works with me on technique, and I even skate in his old costume," says Genrikh.
Thanks to Ulanovsky, he also made it to French choreographer Benoit Richaud's training camp this summer.
"Richaud sees great potential in him - maybe we'll do a programme with him. There is an expression - it takes a village to raise a child. That's the village that has formed around Genrikh.
He is a potential star for the German national team, so there are prospects. The main thing now is to work, and we'll talk about scholarships and funding later, when we have results, nothing is free," Ulanovsky explained.
The question of money is one of the most painful in any transfer. If in Russia a figure skater at the national team level pays for almost nothing himself, the new federation may not have money for training. Not all families are ready for such expenses, so transfers are often thwarted.
"For now, I'm the main investor in this project," laughs Gartung's dad. - "Maybe later sponsors from the German side will join in, but for now everything is on the parents' shoulders. We even buy skates ourselves. It's good that in Germany we have almost free ice: Genrikh is a member of the local club, so we pay only symbolic money for a season ticket.
By the way, we pay for the ice in Moscow as well - after joining the German national team, everything has been organised officially, we buy access to the rink every day, but, fortunately, it's quite affordable. We are very grateful to the club for giving us this opportunity."
Financial issues have also hindered the processing of German documents so far - Gartung doesn't have a German passport, and a residence permit requires a substantial amount of money to be frozen in his bank accounts. So for now Genrikh flies to Europe on a Schengen tourist visa, but he hopes that the problems with documents will soon be solved. He can get a German residence permit via his aunt, so the first step for a passport has already been made.
Genrikh, by the way, can apply for an accelerated procedure of obtaining citizenship - because of his German roots. The Gartungs are from Nizhny Tagil, and a family with a German surname ended up in the Urals, of course, not by chance.
"My grandfather is from the Volga Germans. After the Second World War, he returned home [to Russia], and repressions were in full swing against all Germans - they were considered untrustworthy at the time. My grandfather was miraculously not shot, his sentence was lighter and he was sent to a labour camp in the north of the Urals.
There he met my grandmother, who was also German - from the St. Petersburg nobility of Kuferov. Her father, my great-grandfather, was shot in 1937. My grandmother was rescued by her relatives and taken into their family. And during the war she was taken from besieged Leningrad to the Urals on the "road of life" - exhausted, barely alive. So she met my grandfather in Krasnoturyinsk, in the north of the Sverdlovsk region, and my father was born in the Urals. That's where our German roots come from," says Genrikh's dad Artur Gartung.
"We had both Henriettes and Genrikhs in our family, so everything turned out to be logical with the name - it's not proper calling him Vasily, with such a surname," laughs Gartung Sr.
"It's funny, of course: my name is German, but I started learning the language only recently. I learnt English at school, but when it became clear that we will try to move to Germany, I started to study textbooks. Of course I need the language - both for work and for my passport, and I have to pass a language exam.
I'm already taking courses, but it's the live communication that helps the most. Recently in Oberstdorf we went to the cinema with some guys - I even understood something, haha. Although, to be honest, it's hard - by God, jumping a quad lutz is a hundred times easier", says Genrikh.
By the way, his quad was inspired by Boyang Jin: like Anna Shcherbakova, Genrikh considers the Chinese lutz to be a benchmark.
When asked about his other favourite figure skaters, Gartung answers without hesitation.
- Ilya...
- Malinin, right?
- No, Yablokov [oh bless, I loved Ilya Yablokov on the ice as well
]. I've always liked the way he skates, the way he can rock on the ice. I want to learn the same way. And, definitely Nathan Chen. He had great jumps and choreography, so he is an example of an ideal skater.
The German Federation acknowledged Gartung's debut in Riga as a success and rewarded him with a second stage of the Junior Grand Prix - he will perform in Ljubljana on 2-5 October. He will not be able to qualify for the finals, but he will have a full international season. This means that the whole story of the transition was not in vain.
"It's not easy: no matter which way you look at it, there are no guarantees that everything will work out. But I believe that I made the right decision, I just need to prove it - to myself and others.
Of course, life in Germany is more expensive, and there are a lot of difficulties with paperwork. But I know that I want to skate for this national team and perform at big starts. My goal is the Olympics, and I don't want to go to the Olympics as a tourist."
a big improvement, in my opinion.
