Double Olympic champion in pair skating Maxim Trankov responded to reports of declining revenue from the International Skating Union (ISU) and expressed an opinion on whether this could affect the lifting of sanctions against Russian athletes.
— I think this situation will be the first sad bell for the ISU. But it is difficult for me to predict whether this can influence the federation and lead to the lifting of sanctions against the Russians. My immersion in the subject is not enough to answer this question. Unfortunately, I fear the restrictions will not be lifted soon. I don’t consider myself one of the optimists who believe we’ll be back in a season.
I’m not very familiar with funding and pricing issues, but when the ISU imposed sanctions on Russia, two things were immediately clear. First, figure skating is very popular in our country. Second, national figure skaters have a huge fan base all over the planet. It was naïve to expect their removal to go unnoticed. I’m not talking about tournaments at all. For example, I don’t understand who is going to watch the European Championship. Our guys regularly brought home three or four gold medals. Now, in almost all types of sports, the level will drop dramatically, and it is not very clear whether such a competition can be sold at all, ”quotes RT Trankov.
In March, the ISU suspended Russian athletes from participating in international competitions.
RT
Source : MatchTV
I am William Jackson and I have a passion for sports journalism. With over 3 years of experience in the industry, I have worked in a variety of roles to improve the quality and accuracy of sports news coverage. As an author at Athletistic, I specialize in covering football news and providing comprehensive analysis for fans around the world.
