I've updated the first post to reflect all the skaters who've now gotten their citizenship :hap93: and ones who haven't . Additionally I listed a few I'm not sure of. Please add any updates, corrections, or other teams who are still waiting to this thread, and I'll update the original post again. Thanks!
Natalia KALISZEK / Maksym SPODYRIEV
Natalia - Poland, Maksym - Ukraine - Does Maksym have Polish citizenship?
Justyna PLUTOWSKA / Jeremie FLEMIN
Justyna - Poland, Jeremie - France - Does Jeremie have Polish citizenship?
Lola ESBRAT / Andrei NOVOSELOV
Lola - France , Andrei - Russia - Does Andrei have French citizenship?
Camille MENDOZA / Pavel KOVALEV
Camille - France, Pavel - Ukraine? - Does Pavel have French citizenship?
Maksym - yes, he does. For more than a year now.
Jeremie - no, not yet. I suppose he will get it at the end of the day, but probably not in time for the Olys. Nevertheless, their chances to see Pyongchang, even if he somehow get the the citizenship, will be pretty much non-existent since Poland has only one spot.
Czech figure skating association nominated M&C for Olympics, K&S as alternates. (source: http://czechskating.org/gallery/files/Informace_z_P_CKS_2017-10-07_59f04c433f08e.pdf)
Exactly
Maksim has a passport
Jeremie does not. Their case got moved to Warsaw recently, but I'm quite sure the Polish Fed will do everything to ban any chance of putting Polish ID spot up for grab. There is a field for both couples to face-off if Jeremie will get the passport, but Kaliszek/Spodirev list themselves as "Polish Olympians", Natalia's father is the current president of the federation so practicaly the case of Polish Oly spot is closed. Witch is actually sad, cause Kaliszek promissed a new clear, open and awesome chapter in Polish Fed history, but some things will never change I guess...
Wow. I thought even a hint of Jewishness (see below) was enough to get citizenship straight away.
But, it's good to hear that the sports minister got involved. It shows that the Isrealis do value figure skating. Many other governments would just ignore it, or laugh it off.
Don't worry, I knew things had been better since the change in the White House. BUT, I was under the impression that it had cooled in the past few weeks.
According to Isabella, he has got Jewish heritage. And that is why they chose Israel rather than the other options they had available - because both of them had that connection:
"We had four options," Tobias explained: "The USA, where I'm originally from; Russia, where Ilia comes from; Lithuania; and Israel. The U.S. would have granted him citizenship one year too late at best; Russia wanted me to give away my American passport, which I would never do; and the experts we consulted assured (us) that Lithuania would never grant him citizenship (I barely got mine). So we chose Israel, as I am of Jewish origin, and Ilia has also some Jewish roots via his mother, which makes it easier.
Source: http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2016...ava-rolls-tobias-explains-israeli-connections
That explains a lot. Thank you for the insight.
How long has he been in office? Because there are already quite a few Ukrainians skating for Israel.
CaroLiza_fan
So, what does this mean for them? Are they retired now or still planning to compete this season? They've withdrawn from every competition so far. Hmm, will they be at Europeans and Worlds? Perhaps they only wanted to go to Olympics and since that isn't going to happen, they are now retired?
For Cortney Mansour, when she'll be named Cortney Mansourova, we'll be sure she has czech citizenship ^^
So only Lauriault is left with a question mark.