Josefin is a great entertainer, I enjoy her a lot and she would be a perfect contender for the olympics. But let’s not forget that there are four senior women on the Swedish national team:
I am sure it all has to do with funding. A lot of Swedish athletes are good in other winter sports so there will be many Swedes in Beijing. So I guess the SOK are looking at medal chances. And let's face it, Josefin and Nikolaj will never get an Olympic medal and a top 10 place seems also very unlikely. FS is more segregated that way compared to other sports. Compare that to like Alpine skiing, where a skier ranked 30-40 in the world might have a good day and snitch a bronze.Josefin is a great entertainer, I enjoy her a lot and she would be a perfect contender for the olympics. But let’s not forget that there are four senior women on the Swedish national team:
Matilda Algotsson
Emelie Ling
Josefin Taljegård
Anita Östlund
I’m sure an injury-free Anita can challenge Josefin. And we don’t know what form Matilda and Emilie are in. Last season they didn’t compete much, if at all. Emilie is signed up for jgp cup of Austria. She is 18 years old. If she shows promise she might have that ’one for the future’ spot. But then she needs a senior competition. Don't think she ever competed as a senior internationally?
The tough requirements for Swedish olympians affect athletes from other sports as well, summer and winter. There were lots of complaints this summer about great athletes being left at home. This got lots of attention and support for the athletes. They were from more popular sports than figure skating, like swimming and athletics. But the result is that the Swedish olympic committee(SOK) is going to look into how they should change their selection process.
SOK’s boss Peter Reinebo self-critical: ’There are things to do’ (in Swedish)
Summery:
Now strict ’possible 8th place’ or ’young and promising’ are the criterias.
From this winter they will be better at giving information to each sport's federations individually. Not just written information of the rules on their web pages. There will also be verbal communication with the responsible people for each sport.
I’m sure the requirements will still be tough though. I imagine there’s a big cost for each athlete including coaches, travel, boarding, clothes and all. But maybe the Swedish skating federation(SKF) will now have a better chance to explain how hard this sport is. In particular for a skater from a small nation. And hopefully convince them how fabulous that 15th place Josefin got at worlds 2021 was.
So let’s hope for the best; one woman and one man from Sweden in Beijing. I think it’s unnecessary to criticize SOK until there is a definite decision.
Not saying that you did that ladyjane. You were begging them
That is all very sad because there are plenty of much poorer countries who are happy to send their athletes to the Olympics, no matter their placement. In skating that's for example Mexico. If every country had the same approach as Sweden, there wouldn't really be Olympics to speak of.
The Israel Olympic Committee posted on Instagram congratulating the pair and stating that this will be Krasnapolski's 3rd Olympics, so it sounds like there are no citizenship issues. It also mentioned that Kops lived and studied in Israel before teaming up with Krasnapolski: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUPLWVUItM1/
Thank you for the addition. I'll edit the post then.
Marilena Kitromilis! Lara Naki Gutmann! Ekaterina Kurakova!
But will it be Urushadze or Gubanova for their sole woman? Does Gubanova have Georgian citizenship?
