Polina Shelepen to compete for Israel | Golden Skate

Polina Shelepen to compete for Israel

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
MOSCOW, March 23 (R-Sport) – Promising Russian figure skater Polina Shelepen is to compete for Israel, her coach Svetlana Sokolovskaya told R-Sport on Saturday.

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Icey

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 28, 2012
How does getting an passport qualify you to compete for a country? Is she and her family going to live there? Do you know what her roots there are?
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
she probably has Israeli roots because for Israeli repatriation/citizenship you need to have lineage of Israeli ancestry
 

bigsisjiejie

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 22, 2009
How does getting an passport qualify you to compete for a country? Is she and her family going to live there? Do you know what her roots there are?

It's that simple. Getting a passport normally qualifies you to compete for a country. Residency is usually not a matter of competing, passport is. There are plenty of skaters competing for other countries who aren't full time residents of the passport country. I assume that she is has Jewish ancestry somewhere in the not-too-distant past. Israel has dispensations for acquiring their citizenship to Jews and particularly those from Russia and other Eastern European countries. She'll still have to meet the Israeli team and skating federation standards; presumably that won't be a problem for her. The only fly in the ointment for ISU competitions is if she needs a release from Russia in order to compete next season, since she competed for Russia internationally in the 2012-2013 season.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that this switch had been under consideration for some time.
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
This is a smart move, considering she has a slim chance of competing in Sochi anyway so the earlier she switches the better. Skating for Israel, she will have the opportunity to compete at Worlds and grow through the inevitable good and bad seasons in her career which would not be cut short or diminished due to one bad year or competition. She would have a chance to become a mature skater a la Kostner, Rochette, and other talented skaters from a weak field.
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Excellent choice. She had no chance of making a major team for Russia ever really. The major teams for Russia for awhile will be battled amongst Sotnikova, Tuktamysheva, Radianova, and Lipnitskaya, plus any future skaters who emerge who can compete realistically for a spot against those. The other current ones have no hope. I hope more of the young talented Russians also find a new country to compete for.
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Excellent choice. She had no chance of making a major team for Russia ever really. The major teams for Russia for awhile will be battled amongst Sotnikova, Tuktamysheva, Radianova, and Lipnitskaya, plus any future skaters who emerge who can compete realistically for a spot against those. The other current ones have no hope. I hope more of the young talented Russians also find a new country to compete for.

all 2018 skaters though but agree mostly these five will just reshuffle in their rankings

Sotnikova, Tuktamysheva, Lipnitskaya, Radionova , Sakhanovich and maybe also Sotskova

the rest can contend to be B skaters or alternates but if they want a bigger scene they have no choice but to compete for another Fed, there is oil rich Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, neighboring states Belarus and Ukraine.

maybe Leonova should think about that too ? :yes:
 

silverlake22

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
I think it's too early to say who will be in the mix for Russian ladies in 2018. You never know with injuries, puberty monster, switching representations, motivation or lack thereof, personal or psychological issues (related to skating/competing or otherwise) when you are talking about a time 5 years into the future. It will be interesting to watch, but it's hard to say who will be in the mix for Pyeongchang and who will not. However, I do think this is a good move for Shelepen, she is too talented to have her international career be essentially over at the age of 17. Hopefully the coaching situation will prove to work better now that she is healthy again and not facing such stiff competition.
 

carriecmu0503

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
If you have citizenship with the country you are switching to, no release from the former country is required. When was Polina's last international competition in which she competed for Russia? She has to wait 1 year (or is it 2 for singles skaters- I know it is one for pars/ dance- see V/T) from the date of that competition to compete internationally for the new country.

ETA- I see in the article it is 18 months for singles skaters for Olympics, but 1 year for grand prix. While she won't be able to compete in the Olympics, she could compete at Worlds.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
This is a great idea that will benefit both Polina and Israel. I don't think she has to live there or train there to skate for Israel.
 

vera01

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 6, 2013
She was really smart to do that:)

Maybe we can see her at 2018 Olympics-I'm pretty sure that she's good enough to get one spot for the 2018 Olympics.
 

gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Is it just me, or when a skater switches nationality, their skating deterioates?

A lot of the time this is the case but you have some exceptions like duchesnys and anissina. Look at Russian American and then just Russian skater ksenia makarova. But usually you are totally right because changes come when skater is deteriorating anyway!! Dianne de leauw is a plus and a big minus is like I think soldatova?
 

b-man

Final Flight
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Definitely a good move, when it was clear she wasn't a favorite, I suggested she go skate for another country a year ago.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Is it just me, or when a skater switches nationality, their skating deterioates?

I know they're not singles skaters, but Volosozhar and Kavaguti got better. But as far I understand, many singles skaters who switch to federations that are less prominent invariably get worse results. Who knows, perhaps with less pressure Shelepen might blossom?
 
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