How to respond to rumors about the change of sporting citizenship? Chronicle of Veronika Stepanova

The change in sports citizenship is a subject that gives food for thought, fair or not.

I’ll add my two cents too.

First, let’s understand the concepts. Changing sports citizenship is a series of complex actions. You must first obtain a general passport of a new country, i.e. a new citizenship, then apply to the international federation of your sport, while showing a paper that the old national federation does not see no downside. If you don’t mind, head to international competitions under a new flag. If you object, you’ll be sitting on the bench for a few years with no right to speak.

This is a simplified summary of the process. As you understand, in reality it is possible to change sports citizenship, if only the sports officials of a state are very interested in a new acquisition. “Buyers” are ready to exploit only for the elite: young, but already proven athletes with high chances of winning for the “new homeland of sport” the gold of the World Championship or the Olympic Games.

Now about me. Yes, at the beginning of March, there was a preliminary survey regarding my interest in changing my sports citizenship. At that time there was an opinion that I was some kind of “new type of Russian athlete”. Specifically, it didn’t work, but they did. Western journalists do not have time to find out the real state of things, they build their “houses on the sand”, invent an alternative reality and live there themselves. If a girl smiles, willingly gives interviews and tries to speak English, it means that she clearly shares all relevant liberal values ​​and dreams of nothing but moving to the West.

I was happy to disappoint all those who believed in it!

First of all, I share, to put it mildly, not all values ​​- and since then I speak about it quite bluntly. Secondly, I owe my career to dozens of people in my home country, who are now waiting for me to come back, for victories. Third, I’m slightly better than many athletes, at least in my sport, who have had the chance to try life and career abroad.

I really spent a lot of time and now I spend abroad. To me, that makes sense. I repeat, there are perfectly prepared places for training there, they have been created and equipped for decades. In training, I want the best and I’m willing to pay for it out of pocket.

Months of stay in Western Europe have not been in vain: I have fully learned to understand the intricacies of sorting household waste into seven different bins. I can ask “Where is the nearest laundromat here?” in at least four languages. And I remember by heart in which countries supermarkets are open on Sundays, and in which they are closed (extremely inconvenient, but they do not go to a strange monastery with their charter). I got used to it, I learned.

… And with each new visit, I become more and more convinced in thought: I would not like to live here more or less permanently.

These are not “native birches”, in Kamchatka we have almost no birches in the usual sense, we call them stone birches, they grow askew and are not associated with homesickness.

The fact is that the atmosphere in Europe is completely unsuitable for an ambitious person who has decided to achieve something and expects the same from the environment.

I’m writing this at the inter-gathering, my plan for today is ambitious, but doable: it includes home visits from an electrician, a plumber and a mysterious “heat meter checker” for me, a visit to the hairdresser, an interview on television – and I still have time to train. I can say that it would take me a week to complete such a set of tasks in an Oslo. I don’t have this week, I will soon have a new training camp, I have to do everything here and now!

Another example: a late arrival at a hotel in Munich, the restaurant having been closed for a long time, the hotel reception recommends ordering food with delivery. There is a choice – but it’s a choice between pizza and kebab. Waiting – from one hour. In Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tyumen, any food will be brought to you at any time of the day or night much faster – and much cheaper.

For a year and a half, I have had a clear impression: for the most part, people in the West do not want to live and work at the pace and schedule that I follow. Work-life balance (work and life) for everyone in Western Europe is decidedly life-oriented. That means less work, more fun. My choice is work and achievements. Maybe I’m just not interested in those pleasures that are close to them.

The rhythm of life echoes the rhythm of training.

In January of this year we ended up in the same mountain hotel with the Marcus Kramer group, which included Federico Pellegrino. Federico is a former world champion, Olympic medalist, one of those who has been at the top of cross-country skiing for many years. He has tried various training systems and is clearly prone to process analysis. So Pellegrino openly praised what he called the “Russian approach”: long, weeks-long training camps, where you disconnect from everything – just training, training, coaching. More precisely, they “turn off” you, creating all the conditions for you – only “pashas”. It is very difficult, it requires a “strong back” in the person of loved ones who understand everything, you have just withdrawn from life during these weeks. But the main progress is laid precisely at such training camps.

But Western athletes don’t. A week, a maximum of ten days together – and went home. It suits someone – otherwise Johaug and Klebo wouldn’t have won. But for the majority, especially for young athletes, this approach is not ambitious and does not meet the modern demands of the training process. Consequently, they are less and less ready to fight with us.

One could cite a dozen other arguments, emotional and practical. But I think the conclusion is already clear: hardly any of the Russian athletes in 2022 will even think about changing their citizenship.