Welcome to Golden Skate, Mallory Archer! Post long & often!
I don't think Polina K has any connection to Estonia, it was just a random suggestion. As for Ovcharova, apparently part of her family had moved over there and she liked the country so she decided to move there too.Anyway, can anyone tell me, what are Polina K's and Anna Ovcharova's connections to Estonia and Switzerland? I'm very curious!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia_at_the_Olympics
Saudi Arabia needs a woman to represent it at the Winter Olympics, if it ever wants to field a team (which it hasn't, as yet) (see above what they had to go through at the last summer Olympics)
Perhaps she can compete for Bahrain, which has an indoor ski slope and may want to compete at the next winter olympics?
Even if Agnes wanted to switch to Poland, it's probably not a feasible option for her because she probably wouldn't be allowed to compete internationally for a very long time. It's rumored that U.S. Figure Skating told Morgan Matthews they would hold her for FOUR years because of her competitive record. Since Agnes had two World Junior medals, they could likewise block her for a long time. I don't think Agnes being entitled to Polish citizenship would help her much. Volosozhar still had to get a release from Ukraine even though her Russian ancestry allowed her to get Russian citizenship very quickly.
Anyway, can anyone tell me, what are Polina K's and Anna Ovcharova's connections to Estonia and Switzerland? I'm very curious!
Armin's Wikipedia article didn't really talk much about his family background, except to tell us what his name means in Persian. So, according to Wikipedia, it would seem that Iran is his only other option.
My understanding is that USFS will "embargo" skaters from switching to a different federation for several years if the federation has already invested significant money etc. in their development -- which they will have done if the skater has already earned important international medals that qualified them for A and B funding envelopes. Other major federations probably have similar policies.
From the skaters' point of view, the best time to think about switching countries is before they have any international assignments -- or at least before they win major international medals.
For the young skaters, though, they probably still hold hope that they will become US stars, which would be more prestigious and generally more lucrative. Small start-up federations are not likely to be able to offer any funding, and just traveling to their nationals might be significant extra expense.
Also, of course, fans are not likely to start speculating about skaters who haven't already earned at least some national success.
I can kinda see the USFSA point about investing in skaters then having them leave for other countries, but it seems short sighted. Skating in the US benefits from skating doing well internationally too. NBC would like it too if they could cover multiple skaters in the mix with US connections
When people will start bringing sources before to claim this or that I wonder .This is actually the topic of my PHD thesis, so perhaps I can shed some light on it!
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It is kind of true that Finns don't travel much to St Petersburg, even though it's so close. The complicated visa process (and high cost of visas) puts a barrier up,
This is a reply to Benda's post on page 3.
Brenda, myself and various other members have already mentioned this in passing in this thread, but perhaps I should just emphasise the following point.
There are certain countries where it is so competitive to get into the team that, if they have the option, it would be better for a skater to switch away from, than to switch to:
- The USA
- Canada
- Russia
- China
- Japan
If you are already skating for one of the countries on the list, and have the option of competing for another country on the list, there is no point contemplating switching. You may as well just stay where you are, as it is unlikely to improve your chances of getting selected anyway.
So, there is no point in Christina Gao trying to swap the US for China; or Andrei Rogozine trying to swap Canada for Russia; or Mirai Nagasu trying to swap the US for Japan.
Similarly, if you are skating for a country not on the list, and have the option of competing for another country not on the list, there is not much point contemplating switching.
I know that I keep referring to Denis Ten as being “Korean” (because his whole family is Korean), but he may as well just stick with Kazakhstan. Like, no disrespect to the other male skaters in Kazakhstan, but Denis doesn’t exactly have a lot of strong competition for the Kazakh slot.
But, if you are skating for one of the countries on the list, and have the option of competing for a country not on the list, by all means contemplate switching! It could be the making of your career! That is why I advised Agnes Zawadzki to switch to Poland.
There are certain countries where it is so competitive to get into the team that, if they have the option, it would be better for a skater to switch away from, than to switch to:
- The USA
- Canada
- Russia
- China
- Japan
If you are already skating for one of the countries on the list, and have the option of competing for another country on the list, there is no point contemplating switching. You may as well just stay where you are, as it is unlikely to improve your chances of getting selected anyway.
I generally agree with one exception - are there so many good skaters in China? They have only Li in ladies, Song in men, yeah some good pairs and no great ice dancers actually, I guess. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think switching to China would give Gao rather easy access to worlds.
Christina Gao would easily make the China team with Zijun.
How much (rather, how little) freedom do Chinese skaters have to choose their own coaches though? It seems like the national champs do travel to North America for at least a few weeks each season to get choreography (Nichol and Buttle), but they all have Chinese coaches. The Chinese fed is very nationalistic and I'm not sure how well they'd take to having a foreign-born skater with foreign choreographers AND foreign coaches. Christina was stagnating under Orser in Toronto, but this season we saw a much more confident, poised, and mature skater after starting Harvard and training under Mark Mitchell and Peter Johansson. It seems to be working well for her right now, and I imagine the Chinese fed would demand to have a lot of input into her training situation. IIRC Lu Chen had a lot of conflicts with her fed back in the day, and of course Shen and Zhao's lives were not easy by any stretch.
For example, if Mirai Nagasu who is skating for US had tinier figure and decided to do pairs, there would be no reason why she couldn't switch to Japan. As she would be eligible for Japanese citizenship, she wouldn't have any problems with being accepted by Japanese Federation. Considering that she hasn't had much success the last few years, the US Federation may not make it difficult for her (or she would have to just sit it out).
Another example - Shibutanis. Japanese don't have that great pairs, so that would potentially be successful transfer. Unfortunately they are too successful at the moment and the US Federation may try to keep them/delay the transfer for far too long. But as they are young, if they saw that they are being overtaken by too many couples and that they won't have any future in the US, it would be a possibility.
I generally agree with one exception - are there so many good skaters in China? They have only Li in ladies, Song in men, yeah some good pairs and no great ice dancers actually, I guess. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think switching to China would give Gao rather easy access to worlds.
Christina Gao would easily make the China team with Zijun.
Until recently I thought that China would happily adopt any man or lady, but seeing the new young ones (e.g. Han Yan) coming through, I don't think they need any men or ladies to import now.
Another potential issue is the Chinese internal seniority/ranking issue. Over the past two seasons, we've seen Han Yan get shafted for international assignments in favor of Nan Song, decisions that many people online seem to attribute Chinese culture valuing seniority.
That's great in theory, but what about the Japanese rules over dual-nationality?
You are allowed dual-nationality until you turn 21, and then you have to choose one country or the other.
Of the skaters you mentioned, Mirai and Maia are still young enough to have dual-nationality. But Alex has already turned 21. So, presumably he has already renounced his Japanese nationality. I don't know if you can reverse your decision after it has been made, but it would mean Alex would have to renounce his American nationality.
When people will start bringing sources before to claim this or that I wonder .
Here's the official portal of St-Petersburg government. Data on 2009 says: 2,300,000 foreing tourists (total number of tourists is 4.8mil, the population of the city is 4.5mil in 2009). By country: 1. Finland- 577k (i.e. around 24% of total foreign tourists in the city were from Finland), 2. Germany-173k, .. others: http://old.gov.spb.ru/day/cultur/tourizm . Data for 2010 (bilingual, the population of the city is 4.8mil): http://gov.spb.ru/helper/culture/tourizm/ . In 2012 about 1.4mil tourists from Finland visited Russia, mostly St-Petersburg followed by Moscow (on the second place- Polish tourists, 3rd- Germans). The population of Finland is 5.4mil, i.e. about 25% of the total population visited Russia: http://spb.itar-tass.com/c344/666543.html . If you compare the data for the last couple of years, the number of tourists is growing, not declining. Russian visa cost for Finnish citizens is 35 euros (70 euros fast track) http://www.rusembassy.fi/visas_information.htm Schengen visa cost for Russian citizens issued by the Finnish consulate is 35 euros (70 euros for fast track) http://www.finland.org.ru/public/default.aspx?nodeid=36987&contentlan=15&culture=ru-RU So?