New ISU rule on citizenship and residency requirements

[Kiki5375]

I wonder if a Russian skater that represents Georgia but trains in Moscow can affect that new requirement?

Plushenkov jun comes to mind. If he really wants to compete for Aserbaidschan he needs to live there now? I bet Daddy didn't expect this rule change

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

As long as they are citizens of Cyprus, residence isn't required.

Also, it appears that skaters who already have clearance certificates don't need to satisfy the new rule.

Ah, right. The way I was reading it was that skaters needed to have both citizenship and be a resident.

After worrying about the impact on my Cypriot kids yesterday, I realised today that if this was the case, it could also have a big impact on the skaters closer to home. My local skater, Dillon Judge, competes for the South. But he is from the North and, after training in England for years, now trains in Italy. Being from Northern Ireland, he is automatically entitled to both British and Irish passports, so there are no citizenship issues. But, he has never actually been resident in the South.

So I am relieved that citizenship in itself is enough.

As for the skaters that are actually from the South, only one still lives there. I assume she has citizenship, because she was born in Ireland and has lived on the island her whole life. But I am not entirely sure because both of her parents are from Eastern European countries (Belarus and Russia). The rest of the Irish team are all from other countries, and are representing Ireland through having Irish ancestry. None of them have actually lived on the island.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[yuki@thelake]

Re citizenship and residency, the best example would be Hanna Jakucs / Alessio Galli, who competed for Netherlands but was stripped of ISU clearance. The Hungarian/Italian team lacked residency in Netherlands as they train in Bergamo and I don't think any of them were Dutch citizens.

 

[ladyjane]

To be really fair to them: when they started skating for The Netherlands there wasn't any ID Dutch couple so the Federation thought it would be a good idea to have a couple to represent the Dutch internationally. But...almost simultaneously a Dutch couple developed (citizens and residents except for short periods in Finland for training purposes at first). Hanna and Alessio made no secret about training in Italy once they got the clearance. The other couple got frustrated, and started a lawsuit where it became clear Hanna and Alessio had to reside in The Netherlands but also that the Federation had not enforced the expected residency at all. So the Federation asked the ISU for advice and their clearance was stripped on the advice of said ISU.

All the time when I was reading about these new residency and citizenship requirements I was thinking about them. I felt so sorry for them at the time (they split soon after) because a lawsuit is not the way to settle a rivalry (both couples were pretty close in the points achieved, so it had been a lovely fight - to the viewer - as long as it lasted). However, just as @yuki@thelake stated: neither had citizenship. The situation might have been different if one of them had. But I keep thinking that their situation was used to tighten up rules, while they actually were bullied out.

 

[DemTuppesSeine]

The wording concerning pairs and ice dance teams has been changed

 

[NanaPat]

The wording concerning pairs and ice dance teams has been changed

They could have clarified by simply adding "singles" to 8.2.1, but kudos to them for clarifying!

 

[thatdarncat]

Plushenkov jun comes to mind. If he really wants to compete for Aserbaidschan he needs to live there now? I bet Daddy didn't expect this rule change

Think he has citizenship (though no one knows how, as for a junior to get citizenship one of their parents also needs citizenship, at least that's what I have read, so the rule change won't affect him.

 

[Kiki5375]

This citizenship switching for sport is crazy. I think it's ok if pairs or dance teams come from different countries so one of them needs the citizenship of the other to compete at Olympics but in singles?

 

[4everchan]

I think the ISU is clarifying the rule in order to protect its members : the National Federations. That way, skaters will need to obtain citizenship if they want to switch countries. So country hopping may be more difficult for some who do not have ties with the new country.

I think it's all good.