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Olympic Champ Sikharulidze elected president of Russia’s Figure Skating Federation

Alexander Gorshkov had served as the RFSF president since 2010, being re-elected three times

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. Russian Olympic champion in pairs figure skating Anton Sikharulidze was elected president of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR) on Tuesday.

Sikharulidze was unanimously elected at the extraordinary election conference of the federation in Moscow earlier in the day.

In April 2023, the former figure skater was appointed the acting president of the FSFR after the death of the previous president, Olympic Champion Alexander Gorshkov. He died at the age of 76.

Gorshkov had served as the RFSF president since 2010, being re-elected three times. He was the first-ever Olympic champion in ice dancing, having won the gold at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck in pairs with Lyudmila Pakhomova.

He is also a six-time world and European champion and served as a member of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Executive Board since 2001.

Sikharulidze, 48, won the 2002 Olympic gold in pairs figure skating with partner Yelena Berezhnaya at the Winter Olympic Games held in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. Sikharulidze and Berezhnaya also won the 1998 and 1999 ISU World Championships together.

The decorated duo won an additional silver at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. On December 17, 2021, Sikharulidze was elected the chair of the Figure Skating Federation of Saint Petersburg.

Russia’s Figure Skating global stance

On March 1, 2022, the International Skating Union announced a decision to provisionally suspend all athletes from Russia and Belarus. The suspension includes figure skating, speed skating and short-track speed skating competitions.

At its session on January 25, 2023, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Athletes from the countries in question should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.

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