The head of the Hungarian Figure Skating Federation explained why Europe will be more difficult with the new age limit than Russia

Hungarian Figure Skating Federation director Gurgen Vardanyan said in an interview with that the new age limit will hit Europe harder than Russia.

Earlier, the International Skating Union (ISU) Congress approved raising the age limit from 15 to 17.

– You say “it’s going to be hard for us”. Do you think it will be more difficult for Europe to adapt to the new qualification than for Russia?

– My opinion is yes. It will be difficult for us and our athletes to rebuild. Because it is very difficult to motivate athletes for a long time so that they stay at least until they are 17 years old. It is a difficult process. I think we will survive all of this, of course, but not without difficulties.

In Asia, Russia, America, Canada, it is easier to motivate skaters. In Europe it’s more difficult, because we have a lot less people involved in figure skating. Therefore, I think that Europe with the new qualification will face great difficulties.

But it seems to me that if all of this hits our sport very hard and over time we are faced with an exodus of athletes and a decline in the quality of competition, the ISU should quickly draw conclusions and try to change Something. They have special bodies that should control this – technical committees, councils. They also want to make sure figure skating doesn’t lose out on entertainment.