Kamila Valieva was deprived of neutral status for international competitions

Kamila Valieva was deprived of neutral status, without which she will not be able to compete at international competitions. RIA Novosti reports that

There were no questions for her!

It was assumed that neutral status would be granted almost automatically. And judging by the fact that many Russian figure skaters previously received it almost at the snap of a finger, that’s how it was. The only exceptions were Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Gallyamov and Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin - and then, perhaps, only because they had a history of being denied the same status for the Olympics. The International Skating Union (ISU) previously warned that such cases would receive closer attention - so these delays did not become a sensation. And especially since Mishina/Gallyamov have already received their status - albeit after the start of the Japanese “challenger” Kinoshita Cup, where they were going to enter.

Yes, it seemed to everyone that the application would be considered in especially detail. But according to its own criteria, the ISU did not and could not have any questions for our skater - therefore, she was given the status in advance, even despite the fact that her application for any international competition had not yet been officially announced.

And now - the status is revoked. According to RIA Novosti, this happened around the same time when he was deprived of another Russian figure skater Mark Kondratyuk. He, like Mishina/Gallyamov, was going to go to Tokyo for the Kinoshita Cup, but literally the day before departure it became known that there was a problem with the documents.

What is "temporary" deprivation?

For both Mark and Camila, the withdrawal of status is still temporary. After a while, the ISU will either leave the status or finally take it away.

In a bad case, the further procedure will already be of a legal nature - courts and appeals. If our federation, of course, agrees to this. Previously, our sports officials chose the tactics of “appeasement” and once again preferred not to argue with their international colleagues. Today there is a tendency to actively fight for their rights to participate in international competitions. How will it be in the case of Valieva and Kondratyuk?

For now, we can only say that the revocation of Valieva’s status radically changes the balance of power within our team. The Federation has great faith in Kamila and, as the RIA Novosti author was told, there was no doubt that with proper physical fitness she would be one of the favorites in the fight for the only quota for the World and European Championships. Now, if the status cannot be defended, the bosses will have to seriously think about another candidate.