MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. The press service of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR) published on Monday the roster of national athletes for the 2021 World Team Trophy, which is slated to be held next month in Japan.

The announced roster lists Anna Shcherbakova and Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva (ladies’ singles competitions), Mikhail Kolyada and Yevgeny Semenenko (men’s singles competitions), Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Galliamov (pairs’ competitions) and Viktoria Sinitsyna/Nikita Katsalapov (ice dance competitions).

The list of the selected Russian figure skaters is based on the results of the 2021 ISU (the International Skating Union) World Figure Skating Championship.

The 2021 edition of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships was hosted by the Swedish capital of Stockholm between March 22 and 28 at the over 13,850-seat capacity Stockholm Globe Arena.

The 2021 World Team Trophy in Figure Skating is scheduled to be hosted by Osaka, Japan, between April 15 and 18.

At the World Championship in Sweden last week Shcherbakova and Tyktamysheva won gold and silver medals respectively in ladies’ singles events; Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Galliamov won gold in pairs’ competitions and Viktoria Sinitsyna/Nikita Katsalapov took the gold in the ice dance event, while Mikhail Kolyada and Yevgeny Semenenko finished 5th and 8th correspondingly in men’s singles event.

Due to current sanctions of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Russian athletes are prohibited until December 2022 from participating in the world championships and Olympic Games under the national flag and to the tune of the national anthem.

Last month, the International Skating Union confirmed to TASS that a musical piece from Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 would be played during the awarding ceremonies of Russian figure skating medalists instead of the country’s national anthem. The duration of the musical piece is approximately one minute.

Apart from that, the Russian national team of figure skaters participates in international tournaments under the flag of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR) instead of the Russian national flag.

Sanctions against Russian sports

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld on December 17, 2020 WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.

According to the CAS decision, Russian athletes were deprived of the right to participate in all world championships and Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for a two-year period.

The national anthem of Russia was also ruled out to be played at international sports tournaments in the course of the next two years, including at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this summer.

The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for the period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022.