“Without the Russians, the World Cup entertainment will fall. It would be interesting for fans to watch the showdown with the Japanese and the Americans” – Enbert

World Figure Skating Championships in the absence of Russian athletes will be much less popular, says 2018 Olympics silver medalist in team tournament Alexandre Enbert .

Last year, the International Skating Union (ISU) suspended Russian and Belarusian athletes from competitions due to the situation in Ukraine.

– Of course, without the Russian skaters, the entertainment of the tournament will fall. We all know that our athletes have won many world prizes. World figure skating without Russian athletes is completely different figure skating. Fans from other countries would also be interested to see the confrontation between Russian skaters and Japanese, American, Canadian, etc.

Gubanova’s prospects? At the European Championships, she skated really well. We have known each other for a long time, we skated together at the St. Petersburg Academy. I will support her at the World Championships, but the world competition is incomparable to the European competition, it will be more difficult. At the European Championship, Gubanova executed her programs perfectly, maybe she prepared something new after this tournament, she is competitive. Other Russian athletes representing other countries will also participate in the World Championships. For example, Maurice Kvitelashvili, who skates in Moscow, will support him.

Smart? Everyone is waiting for a quarter axel and the most difficult content from Ilya. It’s incredibly difficult to compete with him, but there are always experienced figure skating greats. There will be a very interesting fight in men’s individual skating, it will be especially interesting to follow Ilya. He recently received the ISU Breakthrough of the Year award, I think it’s absolutely deserved, Enbert told Metaratings.ru.

The 2023 World Championship will take place in Saitama (Japan) from March 22 to 26.

Metaratings.ru