US journalist gloats over absent Russian talent
Journalists from the US and Canada are relishing the lack of elite Russian skaters from the World Figure Skating Championships in Montpellier this week, taking digs at them through tweets and articles.
As a response to Russia's military operation in Ukraine, the International Skating Union (ISU) followed an International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendation and banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from their events earlier this month.
The decision means that the likes of Beijing 2022 team event gold medalist Kamila Valieva and women's singles event gold and silver medalists Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova have not headed to the World Championships in France.
On Twitter, USA Today columnist Christine Brennan shared her piece on Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier winning the US’s first pairs skating world title since 1979, writing: "No Russia? No China? No problem".
"The Russians subsequently were banned from the worlds, not because of the state-sponsored doping that produced the Kamila Valieva scandal in Beijing, but because of their nation’s invasion of Ukraine," Brennan added.
A frequent Russia critic, she claimed that the Russians' absence resulted in the pairs title being "there for the taking" as the Americans "rose to the occasion, scoring personal bests in both their short and long programs."
No Russia? No China? No problem. Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier win USA’s first pairs skating world title since 1979. Meanwhile, the other US pair withdraws due to injury in the middle of their performance. My @usatodaysports column: https://t.co/Vk8JO6T4Sw
— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) March 25, 2022
In another column previewing the tournament, Brennan repeated her line as to why Russians wouldn't be present and sniped that "few will miss them."
"Their absence means the women’s event will be wide open without the first, second and fourth-place finishers from Beijing, giving at least two women the opportunity to make the podium who did not have that chance last month," Brennan noted.
"It also means the second and third-place finishers are out in the pairs event, as well as the silver medalists in ice dancing."
Brennan's remarks come after ex-Globe and Mail reporter Beverley Smith reacted to Kaori Sakamoto topping the women's short program in Montpellier with a score of 80.32 – which is far inferior to the world record 90.45 tally Valieva produced at the European Championships in January, and her previous world best of 87.42 before that at November's Rostelecom Cup.
"There were no triple Axels to be seen, but what a sane women's event this was, compared to the crazy drama at the Olympics," Smith said, in a nod to Valieva's failed December 25 doping sample from the Russian Championships that didn't emerge until the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) had won already clinched the team event in Beijing.
"Sigh of relief: no Russian skaters or judges. Love it. It wasn't the skating or sport world that really made this happen: it was the war in Ukraine," Smith finished.
There were no triple Axels to be seen, but what a sane women's event this was, compared to the crazy drama at the Olympics. Sigh of relief: no Russian skaters or judges. Love it. It wasn't the skating or sport world that really made this happen: it was the war in Ukraine.
— Beverley Smith (@BevSmithWrites) March 23, 2022
Legendary Russian coaching icon Tatiana Tarasova has already responded directly to Smith through Sport-Express, saying: "I want to upset Beverley: we will only be gone a year, and we will return with even greater strength."
Elsewhere, to RBC-Sport, Tarasova gave her thoughts on the decline in quality at the world championships that the North American journalists have also so brazenly praised.
"Among those who skated, the Japanese skater was the best," Tarasova began. "But we have the experience of the Olympic Games. If our girls took to the ice, she would have no chance of winning first place."
Tarasova accepted that Sakamoto "did everything cleanly" to lead with her short program, but scoffed that her routine was like a "skate from 20 years ago."
"All the elements were done, but there were no elements of the highest complexity, and our girls strive and do the highest complexity, [to] develop in technical perfection," Tarasova went on, saying that though the "Japanese [girl] skated well", it was not at "a high level, of course."
Had Russian skaters been allowed to compete, Tarasova noted, they would have been "the first everywhere."
The World Figure Skating Championships are set to conclude on Sunday in Montpellier.
Absent Russian stars including Valieva and Shcherbakova will instead take part in the domestic Channel One Cup in Saransk, which gets underway on Friday.
