The deal to bring Katia Alexandrovskaya to Australia was legitimate, say AOC
The system that allowed skater Katia Alexandrovskaya to switch allegiance from Russia to Australia is under intense scrutiny following her death in tragic circumstances.
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The Australian Olympic Committee says there was nothing improper about the private deal that enabled Russian figure skater Katia Alexandrovskaya to change allegiances and compete for Australia while she was in her teens.
Alexandrovskaya was just 15 when she was first approached in Moscow about the possibility of competing for Australia, and only 17 when her citizenship application was fast-tracked so she could join Harley Windsor in the pairs event at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Windsor’s coaches had been unable to find him a suitable partner at home.
“We are aware that a number of nations do pick up athletes that you might describe as ‘trading’,” the AOC’s chief executive Matt Carroll said. “But in this particular case it wasn’t the case.
The system that allows children to switch countries for the Olympics is now under intense scrutiny in the wake of Alexandrovskaya’s sudden death last month.
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World Athletics President Sebastian Coe has already banned the transfer of track and field competitors under the age of 20, describing the practise as “bordering on human trafficking”.
Carroll said the AOC played no role in brokering the deal to get Alexandrovskaya and as there are no age limits on the transfer of figure skaters, no rules were broken.
“This wasn’t a country approaching a country. The Australian Olympic Committee doesn’t approach other countries for athletes to come here,” Carroll said.
“Ice Skating Australia didn’t approach their Russian Federation counterparts. This was two coaches looking for a skater to pair with Harley to succeed on the world stage and they prepared a girl who also wanted to succeed on the world stage.”
Just how the Russian teen ended up competing for Australia is only one of the issues that has arisen since she fell from the sixth floor of the Moscow apartment she shared with her widowed mother, aged just 20.
Her closest associates told The Australian and The Sunday Telegraph that more should have been done to look after her while she was in Sydney and when she returned to Russia.
Friends said she was left broke and hungry after her funding was cut in 2019 from $75,000 to $20,000 a year and it was well known in the skating community that she was battling alcohol problems.
“You don’t want to see any athlete, but certainly an athlete who’s come from the other side of the world, in any sort of destitute (situation), particularly one that has represented Australia at the highest level, the Olympic Games,” Carroll said
Galina Pachin, one of the Sydney-based coaches who persuaded Alexandrovskaya to switch allegiances, revealed that the pint-sized skater had fainted on at least two occasions and had suffered numerous concussions after falling and hitting her head on the ice.
Pachin said she personally spoke with a doctor at the Australian Institute of Sport seeking advice while Windsor said Alexandrovskaya was treated by another doctor and told to rest for a few days after being diagnosed with a “very light concussion” in 2017.
The Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) is prevented from discussing individual cases because of privacy rules but the chief medical officer Dr Peter Braun said there had never been any reports of ice skaters suffering head traumas.
“I can advise that our figure skating program (dating back to 1999) has not given rise to any incidents of concussion in training, competition, or other non-sport-related activities undertaken by figure skaters supported by us,” he said.
OWIA is regarded as a world leader in the management of concussion in winter sport, having first introduced protocols more than 20 years ago.
The strict principles include assessing and monitoring athletes even suspected of concussion as well as a requirement for anyone who has had concussion to get a medical clearance before being allowed to return.
Carroll said Australian athletes have access to an extensive range of wellbeing programs for mental health and suicide prevention as well as procedures on how to safely report allegations of abuse.
“All of us, whether we are athletes or not, should keep an eye out for people who may not be feeling their best mentally,” Carroll said. “But you can’t make people go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, it’s their choice.
“Can we do more to ensure that these policies and rights of athletes and the importance of wellbeing be consistently highlighted and strengthened? Yes, of course, we can always do a better job.
“They are all important issues that sports do take very seriously.
“The most important thing is to keep a watch on those subjects because they’re all important and there’s nothing wrong with a light being shone on it.”
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