Inscrutable interplay

We are excited and cheer on our athletes. In the stadium, on the biathlon course, in the finish area of a downhill run or in any hall during basketball, handball or figure skating, as was recently the case in Kaunas at a European Championships. We want medals and of course great performances from our country's representatives. After all, according to popular belief, we somehow support them with our tax dollars. Indirectly, mostly, but somehow. And we would like to get something back from our investments. Of course, we also want to demonstrate our strength with our athletes.

Autocratic systems have always abused the successes of athletes for propaganda purposes. Sport is the flagship for the state and for politics. However, things are different in states with democratic structures, but basically the same demands are made. It's just that it's sold more sensitively there. But ultimately everyone has the same goal. They want their athletes to be at the forefront, to win, and, as is so wonderfully often said, to bring honor to their country. Sporting successes can also bring about some euphoria, at least for a certain period of time, when otherwise there is a lot of sadness for a variety of reasons. Everywhere, in all political systems. The weariness of government regulations, the dissatisfaction, are pushed to the sidelines for a short time by winning a championship or at least good results. What if we don’t have any competitive athletes? No problem.

A wild interplay As every year, I spent many hours on the European Figure Skating Championships as a commentator on Eurosport and discovered that the solution to all the problems was probably found here. Europe runs and jumps free. Austria, for example, no longer had any participants. No problem. A South Tyrolean (Maurizio Zandron) helps out of the embarrassment. However, I once took the liberty of saying his true identity and I received bitter news from Austria. He is Austrian, has an Austrian passport and is also training in Austria with an Austrian woman. Basta. European feeling? It doesn't really work yet. Croatia also receives support. Jari Kessler, who still lives in Kaltern, steps in, while Zandron is at home in Innsbruck. The South Tyroleans see it rather casually. One more or less ignores the fact that both turned their backs on their homeland because as Italians they would have had no chance of starting internationally because the domestic competition is too strong. They still score points for South Tyrol. At least in the public perception, it is negated that they represent other countries. However, this has long been a common way of reading in figure skating.

Maurizio Zandron starts for Austria. © APA/afp / DANIEL MIHAILESCU

Especially in pair skating and ice dancing, the designation of nationality has long been a farce, although in this sport the possibility of competing for a country other than your country of birth has been taken to the extreme. Just a few examples. Diane Davis is an American (Las Vegas). Her partner Gleb Smolkin is Russian. They compete for Georgia and thus circumvent the sanctions against Russian athletes, who are also not allowed to compete in figure skating. If you dig deeper into the personal details, Russia is omnipresent. Davis' mother and Smolkin's father were active athletes in Russia. Georgia has opened the doors even further. It is particularly intense in pair skating. Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava are Russians, also train in Perm and would not be allowed to start if they were not suddenly on the ice for Georgia. Last year's European champion and runner-up this year, Anastasiia Gubanova, is also Russian, starts for Georgia and continues to train in St. Petersburg. This common practice is no longer an exception.

Qualifications as a farce I would also be so free and point out that the German pair skating Olympic champions in South Korea in 2018 were an international combination. Alyona Savchenko was born in Ukraine, her partner Bruno Massot was French. After winning the gold medal, they parted ways again. But for a few days they were the German dream couple on the ice. Now the pair skater Minerva Fabienne Hase forms an ice skating pair with the Russian Nikita Volodin. This mainly has to do with the fact that there are simply not enough good figure skaters to fill the starting fields. In some years even the qualification was a farce because there weren't even enough teams at the start to run an elimination in the short program. This is primarily why the International Ice Skating Union (ISU) has relaxed its rules. If you look at it through the eyes of a European who has no borders in the truest sense of the word, it's actually not a bad solution. Europeans on the ice, unite. Fine. But have we already reached the point where we can simply look at the performance without paying attention to the nationality of those who perform it?

Of course we are not. We are once again approaching an unedifying small state system, combined with a sense of national pride that is currently taking a dangerous turn to the right. However, different rules apply to the Olympic Games than to the European or World Championships. Participants must have citizenship for the country they represent. Incidentally, Italy is a great role model in this regard. Almost all possible Olympic starters for Milan/Cortina 2026 in figure skating were born in Italy.

The author: Sigi Heinrich The award-winning sports journalist (including winner of the German Television Prize and the Bavarian Sports Prize), book author and commentator from the very beginning at Eurosport (since 1989) dedicates his column “Sigi's Spitze” to the entire diversity of sport and also enjoys poaching in foreign realms. Sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes serious and thoughtful or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone.

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Inscrutable interplay

In figure skating, national changes are taken to the extreme. Our columnist Sigi Heinrich noticed an increase in this practice at the European Championships in Kaunas (Lithuania). The sanctions against Russia are also elegantly circumvented.

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