ISU to allow "neutral" skaters from RUS/BLR to compete at 2026 Olympics | Page 5 | Golden Skate

ISU to allow "neutral" skaters from RUS/BLR to compete at 2026 Olympics

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I've just found very interesting inside information from Maia Bagryanceva (Russian skating journalist) here https://youtu.be/H5VZj20uSCA (you can turn on subtitles with translation to English). She said she did couple of nonpublic interviews with various ISU officials already (the decision was made several days or weeks before the announcement). And that's what she found:

1) IOC put some serious pressure to ISU president - to allow Russian participation in neutral status (just like it was in summer games)
2) ISU president did talks with various major federations - and majority of them were adamantly against that
3) in the end he did succeed in pushing this decision - but all these strict rules (stricter than they were in summer games) were more or less throwing a bone to these hostile federations - or their conditions to accept that (I strongly suspect US and Japan feds behind these rules)
4) in the beginning rules were even stricter - there was one about forcing athletes publicly condemn Russia's invasion etc. But they reconsidered it (probably due to the fact that such statement will be percieved in Russia as act of state treason - and, I think, it's punishable by law)
5) the announcement was planned to be made after New Year celebrations - but it was made earlier during RusNat to give RusFed the time and opportunity to make their selection properly
6) many federations were surprised and caught off guard by this announcement (it seems the talks about it were made only with major feds - and not minor). And they were greatly frustrated by it

In the end I don't know whether all of this true or not - there is no proofs. So take it with grain of salt. But some info (for example about decision being made long before announcement) coincides with sudden decision of Valieva lawyers file an appeal again couple of days ago (i.e. before announcement). It would be extremely important for Russian side to shorten her disqualification time if "anti-Tutberidze rule" is indeed will work as many think it will.
 
Couch Expert said:
But it is slap in the face. We all know how PCS/GOE judging works in figure skating. To have decent scores there - a skater should gradually build their reputation throughout the season - or even several seasons. It's especially important for new skaters. No matter how good one can skate - judges are not going to give them high scores if they are not familiar with them. And I am not even talking here about very likely bias from nonrussian judges who will have interests of their skaters on the first place anyway. If only one tournament will be allowed for Russians before Olympic Games - judges are going to bury them - and ISU knows this.
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The fact is though if she maintains her current form for the next 14 months, she'll have a total BV 30 points higher than the next best except Glenn where it might be 20-25, and Adelia rotates her jumps more successfully than Glenn or the top Japanese. They can drag her down in PCS by 10 points overall, but there's not a whole lot else they can do.

Plus all the judges follow Russian skating they know what is going on and who the best skaters in Russia are. And so do the fans, because anything about Russians captures the most attention.
 
lariko said:
They don't need to play anything. These conditions are basically designed in such a way that the participation can be canceled at any moment, generating a scandal (Skater XYZ particulated in Plushenko's show in 2023, their source of funding is from a person supporting war) as there are clauses that do that, and the amount of psychological and physical pressure on anyone who goes to qualify in September to China is simply unacceptable to anyone humane. The most amusing thing is that enforces medival Russian legal principle of collective responsibility. It's just bad. RusFed should refuse it if they are serious about their mandate to protect athletes.
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Why shouldn't Russians face the same consequences Germans faced after WW2? Where are the protests? I see them in other countries. Not in Russia.
Couch Expert said:
Alina Gorbacheva is perfectly capable of winning medal. Well, in ideal world where PCS/GOE judged in real time according to what judges are seeing on ice - and not based on reputation and familiarity with skater long before skating even begins.

For which they have full right btw. Doing figure skating in Russia fully independently is only possible on low level. If you are high level skater - you are automatically become state sponsored. Refusing this free support due to some political convictions (which majority of young skaters just don't have anyway) is as clever as refusing from free education, free medicine or pensions. It's literally default obligation of any state caring about their citizens - and have nothing to do with their indoctrination or brainwashing.
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Name me a country that gives as much financial support to its skaters as the Russian fed does. In fact, one could argue Russians have an unfair advantage since in other countries very few can afford to put their kids into figure skating which is why they may not have as strong skaters. Any country can give great results if you have the support of the state. Russian skaters have to decide, do they want to skate for free and make money from shows or do they want to pay for skating but be free to have their own opinions, much like the skaters of pretty much every other federation. They had and continue having a choice. The fact that they don't want to face the consequences of their decisions is their problem and does not make them victims.
 
I often see this victim quote from Europeans or North Americans, funnily. I disdain this wording and stance. Personally I would prefer Russian athletes to skip this event, even if it’s a trap with the goal to give legal ground to exclude Russia for next 2 olympics. I didn’t watch Milano and sure I will skip the next Games too.
 
Dmitri Aliev, Makar Ignatov, Andrei Mozalev, Evgeni Semenenko
Ksenia Gushchina [a], Sofia Muravieva, Sofia Samodelkina, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Anastasia Zinina [a]

Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii, Yasmina Kadyrova / Valerii Kolesov

Sofia Tyutyunina / Andrei Bagin, Elizaveta Shanaeva / Pavel Drozd

All of these skaters competed for Kamila's team at the Channel 1 Cup last year, so need to be banned if we interpret it as some of you are doing.

M/G associated with Kamila on the same team for the 2022 Olympics, they're out.

Also, Mishin was part of the ROC team in 2022. He appeared in the kiss and cry with Kamila, so all Mishin skaters will have to transfer to another coach if they want to participate.
 
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Alexei Zheleznyakov the former choreographer of Tutberitze (you can see all the videos online of him working with Kamila) has been working with Alina Gorbachova this season, so excludes Gorbachova since support personnel can have no contact at any time with Valieva.

Even Yametova tried out with Eteri at one point, so there is that association with Kamila.
 
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The offcial reaction of Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation
http://www.ukrfsf.org.ua/2024/12/20...-rosijskyh-figurystiv-do-mizhnarodnyh-zmagan/
Here is the translation
UFSF outraged by Russian skaters' admission to international competitions
The Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation (UFSF) is outraged by the admission to the Olympic qualifying competitions of Russian skaters who actively support the bloody war unleashed by their country in Ukraine.

It is very symbolic that the ISU announced this decision on the day when the Russian authorities brutally shelled Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and other cities.

At present, Russia continues its full-scale offensive, daily advancing deep into territories that, according to all norms of international law, are Ukrainian, civilian objects are under fire every day, and civilians are dying. That is, at present there are no positive developments and no grounds to say that Russia has weakened or softened its aggressive actions. On the contrary, every day we hear more and more statements from the Russian leadership about further plans for aggression, in particular, yesterday the President of the Russian Federation proposed to strike Kyiv with the latest weapons “out of curiosity”. Russia’s concessions in such conditions can only strengthen their confidence in their own impunity and permissiveness.

No one in the world is deceived by the so-called neutral status of Russian athletes, knowing full well that behind it is the same aggression, undisguised joy from the mass murders of Ukrainians, contempt for rivals in the sports arena. This is confirmed by numerous evidence that is constantly provided to the ISU by the Ukrainian Federation, but which, as it turned out, was not taken into account when making a decision on the admission of Russians to the competition. Moreover, the organization did this in a “secret mode”, without informing the UFSF, which is a member of the ISU, about such an intention, and without involving it in the discussion.

Behind the indicated decision lies deception and manipulation. It is a pity that in such a situation the ISU has embarked on the path of double standards, on the one hand declaring support for Ukraine and its athletes in this terrible war, and on the other – ignoring such concepts as justice, conscience and humanity…

The UFSF considers the ISU decision to admit representatives of the aggressor country to the Olympic qualifying competitions unacceptable and outrageous and recalls that sport in the Russian Federation is a continuation of state policy and is used as a tool for war propaganda.

We invite the ISU leadership, including all members of the ISU Council, to visit Ukraine, in particular, the destroyed infrastructure facilities in Kharkiv, Kherson and other places.
 
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Mathematician said:
I kind of have a similar thesis. Olympics have survived recently only as a half-hearted tradition as opposed to anything serious. The nominal viewership is ostensively maintained but the actual attention and energy is exponentially waning. I wonder if the 2030 games will garner any interest whatsoever. I think we see the Olympics borderline fully pass away in this generation, at least extrapolating current observation. Last year's Olympics literally opened in a debacle it was kind of the last straw for probably half the viewership. People see it now as a political expose as with most things conducted through international government cooperation, especially with western-centric leanings as you mention. None of my acquaintances mentioned anything about the last Olympics. Not even the controversial opening ceremony. Literally nobody cared either way. People ate up the media controversy for a few days (which was probably contrived anyways, to get the ball rolling as much as possible - a last dying attempt for some semblance of relevancy) and that was genuinely the commercial peak of the entire games. I'm the only one in my circle who even knew anything about the games and it was thanks to RG. Even with wrestling it seems there was no hype.
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It's sad that this is the experience you had during these past Olympics, but this is far from universal. Where I live, the Olympics were talked about a lot and they were all over the news (TV, print, social media). Not for controversial reasons either, as barely anyone here took offense at the opening ceremony. Even the Paralympics, which have often been mostly ignored in the past, were extensively shown (on TV and in live streams) and talked about.

The global viewership numbers for the 2024 Paris Olympics are not out yet, but in for example the UK, the Paris Olympics broke the BBC sports streaming record, so at least some countries are not experiencing the same loss of importance or rise in inattention as what you are describing.
Mathematician said:
RG was seriously lame without Russia. The quality of performance was good (the Ukranian girl was awesome, the Italian bronze too), which makes it even worse, that no matter how much they tried to artificially manipulate the perception, natural atmosphere was impossible to generate, just due to lack of national aura. There was no passion in the community, comments, crowd; nothing. Its an inescapable subconscious effect no matter how much people try to feign indifference to national absences or excitement for the specially selected contestants. Varfolomeev saved it but there was still fan controversy over her nationality and that pretty much turned into the event's focal point. After those initial scuffles, any memory or respect of athlete achievement vanished.
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It's also sad that this is how it felt to you, I didn't feel that way. Not during the Olympics and not during the last Olympic cycle.
During the groups competition, the crowd was so loud you could barely hear the music of some of the groups. There was interest in (online) spaces that are usually very much not focused on RG including another site, forums, Twitter, Instagram. I even came across posts sharing Darja's, Sofia's and Taisiia's routines in particular - By people who didn't even know what RG was before these Olympics.
Worlds in Spain and Europeans in Bulgaria were well attended by an enthusiastic crowd, and so was Euskalgym (all my love to the Spanish fans ❤)

The controversy around Darja was mostly caused by a "national aura" in my opinion (specifically, the Italian aura) and more than her nationality, her scores were focused on. In Germany, she was even voted "Female athlete of the year", narrowly beating out surprise Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye and 4-time Olympic champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl.
 
Jumping_Bean said:
It's sad that this is the experience you had during these past Olympics, but this is far from universal. Where I live, the Olympics were talked about a lot and they were all over the news (TV, print, social media). Not for controversial reasons either, as barely anyone here took offense at the opening ceremony. Even the Paralympics, which have often been mostly ignored in the past, were extensively shown (on TV and in live streams) and talked about.

The global viewership numbers for the 2024 Paris Olympics are not out yet, but in for example the UK, the Paris Olympics broke the BBC sports streaming record, so at least some countries are not experiencing the same loss of importance or rise in inattention as what you are describing.

It's also sad that this is how it felt to you, I didn't feel that way. Not during the Olympics and not during the last Olympic cycle.
During the groups competition, the crowd was so loud you could barely hear the music of some of the groups. There was interest in (online) spaces that are usually very much not focused on RG including another site, forums, Twitter, Instagram. I even came across posts sharing Darja's, Sofia's and Taisiia's routines in particular - By people who didn't even know what RG was before these Olympics.
Worlds in Spain and Europeans in Bulgaria were well attended by an enthusiastic crowd, and so was Euskalgym (all my love to the Spanish fans ❤)

The controversy around Darja was mostly caused by a "national aura" in my opinion (specifically, the Italian aura) and more than her nationality, her scores were focused on. In Germany, she was even voted "Female athlete of the year", narrowly beating out surprise Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye and 4-time Olympic champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl.
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Well if you really think the Olympics are still alive thats not a problem to me. I did mention the nominal viewship is fine it just seems the energy is gone. I dont feel convinced by TV. Most people arent checked into legacy media anymore. Anyways I dont really care one way or another. Where I'm from basically nobody knew it was even happening. If it seems alive elsewhere thats fine with me. Not really a debate im super invested in. Just giving my experience.
 
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The ISU guidelines are basically the same as world swimming's.

On page 6

They must have not associated in any way with any person serving a period of ineligibility for an anti-doping rule violation;

It's not some special clause invented by the ISU to ban everyone that has ever trained or performed alongside Kamila, ever coached Kamila, ever been support personnel of Kamila.

Eteri has appeared at ISU events for the last three seasons.
 
Couch Expert said:
I've just found very interesting inside information from Maia Bagryanceva (Russian skating journalist) here https://youtu.be/H5VZj20uSCA (you can turn on subtitles with translation to English). She said she did couple of nonpublic interviews with various ISU officials already (the decision was made several days or weeks before the announcement). And that's what she found:

1) IOC put some serious pressure to ISU president - to allow Russian participation in neutral status (just like it was in summer games)
2) ISU president did talks with various major federations - and majority of them were adamantly against that
3) in the end he did succeed in pushing this decision - but all these strict rules (stricter than they were in summer games) were more or less throwing a bone to these hostile federations - or their conditions to accept that (I strongly suspect US and Japan feds behind these rules)
4) in the beginning rules were even stricter - there was one about forcing athletes publicly condemn Russia's invasion etc. But they reconsidered it (probably due to the fact that such statement will be percieved in Russia as act of state treason - and, I think, it's punishable by law)
5) the announcement was planned to be made after New Year celebrations - but it was made earlier during RusNat to give RusFed the time and opportunity to make their selection properly
6) many federations were surprised and caught off guard by this announcement (it seems the talks about it were made only with major feds - and not minor). And they were greatly frustrated by it

In the end I don't know whether all of this true or not - there is no proofs. So take it with grain of salt. But some info (for example about decision being made long before announcement) coincides with sudden decision of Valieva lawyers file an appeal again couple of days ago (i.e. before announcement). It would be extremely important for Russian side to shorten her disqualification time if "anti-Tutberidze rule" is indeed will work as many think it will.
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It's clear the IOC pressured ISU and that's why USFSA made these strict conditions because the Americans have no interesting in letting the Russians back, now that they win more medals than before (and it was so predictable that they don't want Russia in the team event. It's a free gold medal for USA with this condition. Seriously, the team event needs to go at this point). JSF agrees whatever the US federation does, they don't have an independent opinion.
 
I just watched a lot of the world aquatics.

Russians and Belarussians were admitted. A few of them, but don't be fools, some of the most talented Russian young swimmers were able to take part. Some of the posts here are implying only weaker and not established skaters would be eligible. It wasn't the case for swimming.
As a matter of fact, Neutral Athletes B (Russians) won 10 medals. 3 of these medals were even won in relays.

So, of course, world aquatics (formerly FINA) is more permissive than ISU because that wasn't even Olympics nor a qualifying event but short course world championships (25 m pool).
Jumping_Bean said:
It's sad that this is the experience you had during these past Olympics, but this is far from universal. Where I live, the Olympics were talked about a lot and they were all over the news (TV, print, social media). Not for controversial reasons either, as barely anyone here took offense at the opening ceremony. Even the Paralympics, which have often been mostly ignored in the past, were extensively shown (on TV and in live streams) and talked about.

The global viewership numbers for the 2024 Paris Olympics are not out yet, but in for example the UK, the Paris Olympics broke the BBC sports streaming record, so at least some countries are not experiencing the same loss of importance or rise in inattention as what you are describing.

It's also sad that this is how it felt to you, I didn't feel that way. Not during the Olympics and not during the last Olympic cycle.
During the groups competition, the crowd was so loud you could barely hear the music of some of the groups. There was interest in (online) spaces that are usually very much not focused on RG including another site, forums, Twitter, Instagram. I even came across posts sharing Darja's, Sofia's and Taisiia's routines in particular - By people who didn't even know what RG was before these Olympics.
Worlds in Spain and Europeans in Bulgaria were well attended by an enthusiastic crowd, and so was Euskalgym (all my love to the Spanish fans ❤)

The controversy around Darja was mostly caused by a "national aura" in my opinion (specifically, the Italian aura) and more than her nationality, her scores were focused on. In Germany, she was even voted "Female athlete of the year", narrowly beating out surprise Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye and 4-time Olympic champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl.
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Actually, Paris games were the most watched ever so I am not sure why some have the impression it was a huge debacle.

ici.radio-canada.ca

Les JO de Paris ont été « les plus suivis de l’histoire »

Les JO de Paris ont été « les plus suivis de l'histoire », regardés par « environ 5 milliards de personnes » à la télévision ou sur plateforme numérique.
ici.radio-canada.ca ici.radio-canada.ca
 
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