A South Tyrolean for Spain

Border controls and troop deployments. Negotiations on neutral ground between so-called great powers in order to prevent possible escalations, even wars. Keeping the world together to some extent so that it doesn't explode like so many volcanoes these days is a Herculean task for politicians. Sisyphus, the King of Corinth, can tell you a thing or two about it. After angering the gods, he was supposed to roll a giant stone up the mountain, so the legend goes. The stone was bigger than him and every time he got it to the summit, it rolled back down into the valley. It was a hopeless endeavor. Many of the envoys from the USA and Russia who are currently meeting in Geneva to get the border conflict on Ukraine's eastern border under control will probably feel similarly. Europe can be so simple, indeed the entire world order could take an example, of how it can sometimes be almost problem-free and ultimately successful to combine various interests into a harmonious whole. The European Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn are an ideal opportunity to see how European understanding can work in a small cosmos. © APA/afp / DANIEL MIHAILESCU

South Tyroleans abroad Marco Zandron from Bolzano, for example, twirls his partner Laura Barquero from Madrid over the ice with a lot of momentum and successfully. The South Tyrolean starts for Spain. Both train in Bergamo and qualified for the final with a very good eighth place. By the way, he also met his brother Maurizio in Estonia. He is there for Austria as an individual starter. But there are much more blatant examples, such as Karina Safina and Luka Berulava, who both come from Russia and are trying to at least achieve a good placement for Georgia in Tallinn. In their home country, they would never have been able to take part in continental title fights in pair skating - three teams from Russia are leading after the short program. Now they are in sixth place and have proven that they are very competitive. At least they were able to stay in their homeland, maybe they had never been to Georgia. Others make great sacrifices for their dream, such as the Spaniard Sara Hurtado, who is competing for Spain in the ice dance with Kirill Khaliavin from Kirov. Hurtado left her sunny homeland and moved to Moscow to train there under expert guidance.

Daniel Grassl is Italy's best figure skater. © APA/afp / DANIEL MIHAILESCU

As it becomes clear, it is primarily athletes from Russia who take winding paths in order to be able to compete in international competitions. The competition there is too big and really huge. Around 20 almost equal teams and individual runners compete for three starting places. In all disciplines. Russia will probably win nine out of twelve possible medals at this European Championships. Gold everywhere anyway. Even Daniel Grassl from Merano won't be able to prevent this from happening among the men. He is in fifth place after the short program, but too far behind in terms of points to be able to fulfill his dream of winning his first medal. But of course he will stay at home. He is Italy's number one and also nominated for the Olympic Games. By the way, one of his competitors is Vladimir Litvintsev from Azerbaijan. A Russian who is clearly reminded that he would never have had a chance to compete in a European Championship back home. Changing nations made easy However, the interplay can also completely change and influence life, as was the case with Pavel Kovalev from St. Petersburg, who also found his true love this way. He married Camille from Toulouse and is now going on the ice with his love for France quite successfully. The big question of citizenship is now clarified, because you can only compete in the Olympic Games with the official passport of the respective government. This is not a big issue at the European Championships. All it takes is the approval of the national association that is handing over its athletes, which can sometimes also become a financial issue, because the candidates willing to change were also trained in their country. Training courses and trainers were paid for this. And so many checks are sometimes written out to make it possible to change nations.

At the International Ice Skating Union (ISU), the many changes are also seen from the perspective of increasing quality and, above all, quantity. There are 21 teams in pair skating, more than there have been in more than ten years. There have already been European Championships with no more than ten pairs. This year, after a long time, a qualification for the final (freestyle) actually has to be carried out. And that's also because a Russian woman who was initially in Switzerland (Ioulia Chetchetinina) is now pair skating in Hungary with Mark Magyar. A Russian (Daria Danilova) starts for the Netherlands with Michel Tsiba and the Czech Republic has also strengthened itself with a Russian pair skater (Jelisaveta Zukova) for their Martin Bidar. At least things are a little different in Croatia. The male part for Lana Petranovic comes from Russia (Antonio Souza Korderu). The procedure is not a purely European phenomenon. It is done this way all over the world and means that figure skating can certainly be seen as an example of how, with good will, borders can be made permeable and the world perhaps a little bit better as a result. Even if it's not always easy.

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A South Tyrolean for Spain

As a commentator for Eurosport, our columnist Sigi Heinrich is currently experiencing how the restrictions are loosening at the European Figure Skating Championships and how many who are currently taking part in Tallinn are looking for their chance by competing for other countries.

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