They say that Tutberidze’s daughter will skate for the US national team. Does that even make sense?

She performs ice dancing with Gleb Smolkin. Last year, a promising young couple abused the archaic concept of “queuing” and immediately rose to second place in the Russian championship, after receiving an Olympic ticket. And along the way – she set score records for debutants in the European Championships and became the cause of a scandal in Russian dances, in which too many people felt disadvantaged in their favor.

In the individual tournament of the Beijing Olympics, Diana and Gleb became 14th. At first sight, an exceptional result. And the second – the debutants of the adult season were in the top 15 of the main start of the four years. Many fail to do so for a lifetime of sport.

It should be noted right away that Dave Leese, of course, has some information, which he has repeatedly proven, but he cannot do without errors at all. Moreover, it is hard to believe that Eteri Georgievna personally reported this information (according to Liz, she also added that she herself would be happy to move to work in the United States). This morning, Tutberidze on social media called the blogger’s comments about her own movement false, and Davis, in response to the news of the transition to the American flag, wrote: “What interesting news we will learn about ourselves- same.

Can this be considered a rebuttal? Maybe yes. In addition to not counting, because there was no clear “no” in the public space. Plus, there’s actually a lot more sense to this transition than it first appears.

On the one hand, the change of sporting citizenship imposes a number of unpleasant and repugnant restrictions. According to current regulations, at least for the next season, Diana and Gleb should abstain from all competitions in order to purge their quarantine. This should be preceded by a request for transition from the pair of the American Federation (it does not currently exist), then a release from ours, and after that, approval of the transition by the Union International Skating Championship (ISU). All of this takes time, and a lot of time. In addition, in the new team you need to regain status, be selected for starts in conditions where no one can give even a theoretical guarantee of the result.

If so, why? Well, if you think in theory, then even today the ISU Congress did not begin to remove the indefinite suspension of Russian athletes. This means that the next international season for our skaters is very likely to fall – why not an opportunity to serve quarantine painlessly? Also, Davis, as a Las Vegas native, wouldn’t have been too hard to change sports citizenship to American, and Gleb (he doesn’t have a US citizen passport) could probably figure something out.

There are two advantages – in terms of competition. The current Davis/Smolkin coach, Igor Shpilband, is one of the founders of American ice dancing, and he has quite an influence on the North American federations. And after the retirement of the principal dancers of the American team, Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donoghue, at least one place has been freed up on the team, and there are not many candidates for it. Not to mention the fact that without Russian couples it will become more spacious on the international stage.

Americans may also have their own interest in this story. Filling a vacancy on the national team with young (Diana is 19, Gleb is 22) Olympians with great prospects and back support sounds good, you see, especially when one of them is the beloved daughter of the world’s strongest coach. I still don’t believe the talk of Tutberidze moving to the US, but if in theory, why not?

On a purely sporting level, however, Diana and Gleb are also interesting. Their disadvantages are obvious to many, and the two partners have not yet made a qualitative breakthrough, but at the same time, even with the naked eye, one could see how far they have progressed last season in terms of technology. . Yes, so far Davis/Smolkin is more about elements than glide and serve, but the Americans are in no rush to go anywhere.

They already have a first nominal pair – Madison Chalk and Evan Bates have waited too long for the leadership to be given to them, so initially Diana and Gleb, in the event of a theoretical transition, can develop calmly without direct responsibility for the outcome of the whole team. And by the 2026 Olympics, which the guys will definitely not be off the hook when changing citizenship, the alignment of forces may already be changing.

Moreover, now Davis and Smolkin are not constrained by anything – neither the ceiling of development, nor health problems. Diana’s long audition history has been positively resolved. In the fall, the guys told me that she never had any serious difficulties, so we can say that Diana does not encounter any difficulties that could in any way affect figure skating and the ordinary life.

If they continue to steadily advance in technology and add to the emotional presentation, who knows what that may entail. And most importantly – in which team. At the moment, the parties refute the transition, but there is a feeling that the point in this matter has not yet been put.