Olympic short track champion Semyon Yelistratov believes that the Russians will not participate in the 2023/2024 international season.
The International Skating Union (ISU) on June 11 confirmed the decision to withdraw the Russians from starts under its auspices amid the situation in Ukraine.
– We started preparing for the start of the season quite early, in April. Now there will be a third collection. The first was in Ufa, we arrived recently from Kyrgyzstan, we were sitting in the mountains on Issyk-Kul. Great mountain course! Passed a five plus. There are some nuances in the preparation in the mountains, but I really liked it there.
How did you react to the decision of the ISU?
– To be honest, it seems to me that this season we will also race inside Russia, while continuing to prepare, as for the international season – admission can happen suddenly, and we will have to come back in full preparation. I have no motivation problem, I love what I do. I am preparing in the same way as in previous years.
– You hoped that the admission would already be done during this meeting of the executive committee?
“We are just preparing for the season. Nothing depends on us, athletes, in this decision. I see it’s allowed somewhere in other sports. I hope the right people are working at ISU and they will let us in soon. Everything will be complicated by the status in which we will be admitted. We already played neutral in 2018, but now the situation with neutral status is not the same as before. Then everything depends on the decision of the President of the Russian Skating Union Nikolai Alekseevich Gulyaev, our Ministry of Sports, the Olympic Committee. As I said before, I am not preparing for Russian competitions, but for international competitions. If we are not going anywhere and my sports career ends in Russia, I have to be honest with myself, work hard. Again, I have enough motivation. It’s also important for the next generation to see how the leaders train, how they stay. I see that the leaders of other sports are not leaving either, they continue to work, Yelistratov told .
Source : MatchTV
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