Am watching a replay of some of the European Figure Skating Championships - begrudgingly I had to get used to not seeing any Russian skiers in XC, but not seeing any Russian skaters in a figure skating championship is just a crying shame. The best of the best are not there, it's like watching a 2nd tier competition which I'm not all that interested in. Booooo!
Well, this is a difficult topic without getting into politics. I'll try to keep it about the sportive side as much as possible: I am really not a fan of the ban, but I can see the reasons behind it, and now that's just the way it is. As I have started to follow figure skating a lot more closely I do also follow the Russian skaters still (their competitions are all on youtube). But I think it's fair to appreciate the other European skaters for what they are. There are some that don't have the highest tech, but are beautiful to watch. In fact Aymoz has become my favourite skater after Hanyu's retirement and although I would love to see guys like Kolyada and Semenenko internationally I don't think the EC are worthless without them.
The Russian girls are problematic for other reasons already. I find it tiresome to see 14, 15 year olds do these incredible jumps only to have them replaced by the newest younger girl in the next season already. I was a fan of Kostornaia, but she switched to pairs and her health seems to be so bad that it's not clear whether she will ever be able to compete on a decent level again. Shcherbakova had surgery and seems to effectively have retired, Trusova has been injured all the time and it's also doubtful whether she will come back (strong).
The only female skater I miss in international competition is Tuktamysheva.
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