Olympic champion Evgeny Plushenko is planning to submit a request for the reinstatement of his status as an amateur figure skater in order to take part in his home Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
“I want to continue to skate. My coach Alexey Mishin and I are planning to send a formal letter to the International Skating Union (ISU) and the Figure Skating Federation of Russia in order to regain my amateur status. Hopefully, it’ll be restored by the next season. I have three Olympic medals. In general, I can finish a career, but I still want to battle it out for my country in Sochi for our country, and for myself too. So I’m planning to stand for my name,” Pluschenko told ITAR-TASS news agency.
Plushenko was disqualified by the ISU council this summer and is banned from taking part in tournaments the union organizes.
“In fact, I myself still don’t understand how this all happened. The initiator of the decision on my disqualification was the International Skating Union. I guess so. Maybe I'm wrong. The formal reason is that I didn’t warn the Figure Skating Federation of Russia and the ISU of my exhibition performances in Japan and in Europe in the spring,” the 27-year-old stressed.
According to Plushenko, he is "the first ever athlete in the history of figure skating to be disqualified not for doping use, but violation of the rules of the ISU.”
“Skaters usually, receive warnings for violations of these rules. It has always been this way, but not in my case. The Vancouver Olympics showed that many don’t like me. It seems they think new names are needed in world figure skating,” he added.
Evgeny Plushenko, who won gold at the Turin games in 2006, made a comeback to the sport ahead of the Vancouver Olympics, but could only manage a silver in Canada.