One of the most talented figure skaters in Russia in recent years, Sofya Samodelkina received the go-ahead to perform for Kazakhstan. Sport tells how an athlete from the academy, Evgenia Plushenko, was able to change her sports citizenship and what awaits her next.
The Russian passport will have to be surrendered. The head of the FFKKR, Anton Sikharulidze, recently said that his position on the transfer of athletes to other teams is categorical – no detachments unless absolutely necessary. But the executive committee of the FFKKR passes by, where requests to change sports citizenship have been sent in stacks, and our officials take them and approve them. Moreover, people were not the last to leave. For example, our star Sofya Samodelkina, whose transition to the Kazakhstan national team was so drawn out and filled with such details that it is now possible to make a short film based on it – either in the dramatic genre or in the comedy genre.
But how and why was she released in the first place? After all, Sikharulidze verbally promised an iron curtain, and not a farewell wave of his handkerchief. Moreover, we have not encountered the departure of such a strong athlete in women’s single skating for a long time, and considering that the main team for the next season included three girls without ultra-C out of six possible, this may still come back to haunt us.
The logic of the federation can be seen in two theses. Firstly, the factor of the Kazakh passport, which Sophia received in advance last summer, was almost certainly key. Given Kazakhstan's legislation, which does not allow dual citizenship, Samodelkina will almost certainly be forced to surrender her Russian passport upon reaching adulthood (she is now 17 years old). And this means that even with all the desire, she will be able to perform at domestic competitions only outside the competition, and at international ones – not at all.
Does the national team need such an athlete? Most likely no. And even ultra-si (and Sophia has an abundance of them when she is in good shape) will not be able to influence this in any way.
Chances of Olympic gold Secondly, Sophia’s medical record is not a plus for her. Over the past two years alone, she has spent quite a lot of time recovering from various injuries – which, of course, is absolutely normal in a vacuum, but completely unacceptable in the world of Russian women's singles.
In a year she will be 18, and there will be even more various microdamages. At the same time, somewhere on another ice (or even on the same one where she herself trains) new talented young athletes will already grow up, ready to jump as much ultra-si as they want right now. In the conditions of such a conveyor system, which gives undeniably high results, but at the same time harshly rejects everyone who falls behind, the value of figure skaters like Sophia begins to decline year after year. And even if we assume that tomorrow the faucet of complex elements in our sport suddenly turns off, girls, even with triple jumps, will be a priority due to the banal ability to work more and get tired less.
All this probably brought the federation to two chairs – on one, the human attitude towards an athlete, who no longer quite fits into the modern criteria of our sport, and on the other, the role of a dog in the manger. And here it is definitely worth praising the members of the FFKKR for choosing the first. Yesterday we witnessed another situation where words do not match deeds, but this time it’s even good.
At the same time, does all of the above mean that Russian sports do not need Samodelkina? This thesis, for example, is quite actively emphasized by the great coach Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova, whose authority, on the one hand, cannot be doubted, but on the other hand, in this case I really want to.
Because Sofia is not a figure skater weak. While still essentially a junior, she already demonstrated the ability to present her programs maturely, a skill she honed continuously. When she skates clean, she has every chance of high components – and this is in addition to outstanding technical ability.
Previously, she collected all quadruples and triple axels in training. Now the set, of course, has become simpler, but it is still a very confident triple Axel + quadruple Salchow in various variations. At the international level, one stable ultra-c in each short and free program is an almost one hundred percent chance of winning. Yes, even at the domestic Russian level, which until recently was overfed with the most complex elements for women, this would have been enough to confidently follow the champion of everything and everyone Adelia Petrosyan last season.
On one condition – if Sophia can stay healthy. Jumps in form caused by breaks for recovery can result in almost a complete loss of ultra-c, without which no one will be able to beat the current queen of the world, Kaori Sakamoto. Sophia desperately needs a stable, smooth next season, because he is destined for the role of public shows. If she shows herself to the audience and judges properly, by the 2026 Olympics she will begin to be appreciated. And in this case, this means not just the podium of major tournaments, but gold medals. Ideally, everything that is possible.
But before that, time still has to pass. You shouldn’t expect defeats from Samodelkina by the coming autumn, no matter how much you would like it – firstly, specifically for the first year the goals are slightly different, and secondly, they won’t give it. International judges need to get used to the new contender for world leadership, and she needs to get used to how they judge “over there” and what “there” is valued most. Most often, “there” and “here” in terms of the desires of the referees are at least somewhat different.
And yet, Sophia should approach the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan with the rank of leader. And then we can again get a gold medalist from Russia in the women's singles – the fourth cycle in a row, which has never happened before in history. And even though evil tongues will try to insert their weighty “but”, there is absolutely no need to listen to them.
Instead, we can wish Sophia great luck. She deserved her chance a long time ago.
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