Naturalized athletes in Russia: who, when, and why
Ahn Hyun-Soo (South Korea)
Age: 25.
Sport: short track.
Background: The gradual re-establishment of the Russian national short track team as a branch of the Korean one goes on. The head coach Jimmy Jang, his four assistants, physiotherapist, masseur, and female skater Lee Mi-Yeon are already working in Russia, and the three-time Olympic gold winner is about to join them. Alexey Kravtsov, president of the Russian Skating Union, claims that Ahn Hyun-Soo personally declared his desire to become a Russian citizen, so given his record the presidential commission should complete the naturalization process really fast.
Upon obtaining the Russian passport Ahn Hyun-Soo will become the most successful foreigner in the country’s national teams, but one should not overestimate his achievements: he hasn’t performed for the Korean team since 2008 – at first due to a knee injury and then due to high competition. Having lost his chances in the home team, Ahn decided to try his luck abroad. As a response to his e-mail, the Russian Skating Union invited him to the national team’s training camp, where he began training since June.
The skater will have to pay quite a high price for the change of his passport: not only has he to live in Russia on a regular basis, but also to abandon the Korean citizenship.
Debut for Russia: could happen already in the upcoming season, as his required two-year quarantine term has expired while he was forced out of the international competitions.
Adam Byrnes (Australia)
Age: 29.
Sport: rugby.
Background: Byrnes is not the first foreigner in the Russian national team. Back in 2002 three South Africans (Rene Volschenk, Werner Peters, and Johan Hendriks) played for us in the World Cup qualification. That story caused Russia to be banned, as the players’ Russian origins required by the IRB turned out to be allegedly fake.
The two-meter high and richly bearded Byrnes from the Melbourne Rebels already took part for Russia at the 2011 World Cup. There is no doubt in Byrnes’ Russian origins – the Russian Federation wouldn’t want to fall into the same trap once again. The Australian’s quality is undoubted as well, as the Super 15 league – where he plays and which includes 5 teams from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand each – is a quality mark able to be compared to the football Champions League at least.
Debut for Russia: on September 15 at the World Cup 2011.
Yuko Kawaguchi (Japan)
Age: 29.
Sport: figure skating.
Background: Before moving to Russia, Kawaguchi used to skate with her partners for two different countries – Japan and the United States. The Japanese’s dream – to work with coach Tamara Moskvina – came true in Russia, where she also found Alexander Smirnov, her current partner.
A year after her debut for the Russian team Yuko already stood on the podium of the European Championships. Next year it was the World Championships. Kawaguchi was given the Russian citizenship by the president’s personal decree, while her permission to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics was wrung out by a powerful delegation headed by Leonid Tyagachyov, former president of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Debut for Russia: on November 24, 2006 at the Moscow Grand Prix.
J.R. Holden (USA)
Age: 34.
Sport: basketball.
Background: The Russian team was in need of a classy playmaker, while CSKA Moscow required place for an additional foreign player. Such a happy coincidence of interests helped CSKA bosses to russificate the American in some incredibly short terms. In the autumn of 2003, only a year after Holden’s arrival in Russia, the presidential decree was published stating that Holden possesses the skills that are «of interest for the Russian Federation».
The president was right: Jon Robert made ‘the golden shot’ in the European Championship 2007 final against Spain two seconds from time. Not surprisingly, Holden decided to end his career in Russia – which he did on September 14.
Debut for Russia: September 1, 2005 in Istanbul at a preparatory tournament for the European Championships.
Kelly McCarty (USA)
Age: 35.
Sport: basketball.
Background: Following the successful example of CSKA, BC Khimki naturalized an American for themselves as well. Kelly McCarty became Russian citizen in the summer of 2007, but didn’t become so important for the national team – the only place reserved for the naturalized players was firmly held by Holden. Only when the latter refused the call-up to Euro 2009, McCarty was allowed into the national team thereby finally fulfilling the tripartite agreement between him, the Russian Basketball Union, and Khimki, providing that he had no right to turn down any invitation to the national team. Euro 2009 was Kelly’s only tournament with Team Russia.
Debut for Russia: on August 7, 2009 in a friendly match against Macedonia ahead of the European Championship 2009.
Rebecca Hammon (USA)
Age: 34.
Sport: basketball.
Background: Becky’s naturalization was aimed for the Beijing Olypmics, as the national team had no appropriate number 1 since Anna Arkhipova’s retirement. Hammon had been angry with the lack of attention to her from the American bosses and the Russian Basketball Union seized the opportunity. In February 2008, the South Dakota-born acquired a Russian passport.
These news caused a pained reaction in the USA and Hammon was immediately put on the traitors list. However, she fit perfectly into the Russian national team, becoming its true leader and key figure during the Olympic Games, the 2009 European Championship, and the 2010 World Cup. Still, as Euro 2011 was approaching, coaches preferred the younger Epiphany Prince to the fading Hammon – bur the former turned out to be a dog in the manger.
Debut for Russia: on August 3, 2008 in a friendly match against Latvia.
Epiphanny Prince (USA)
Age: 23.
Sport: basketball.
Background: The young American point guard was thought to be Becky Hammon’s heiress back when the latter was still OK. Prince’s naturalization process was launched beforehand, but the only ones who benefitted from it was Prince herself and her club Sparta&K, where she spent a season not falling under the foreigners’ limit. On the eve of the European Championship 2011 Prince and her agent demanded some privileged conditions, which the coaches refused to fulfill. Now the athlete will face sanctions, while the national team hard times ahead.
Debut for Russia: maybe someday in future, for example, at the 2012 London Olympics.
Kelly Miller (USA)
Age: 31.
Sport: basketball.
Background: Miller got her Russian passport on the eve of the Beijing Olympics only to allegedly ‘tear it into pieces and flush down the toilet’ two years later. Between those two events Miller used her Russian pass exactly as intended, being exempt from the foreign players’ limit in effect in the Russian Championship. The whole story of her not taking part in the European Championship was revealed by the Russian national team manager Oksana Rakhmatulina, who told it to the media referring to her ‘own exclusive sources’. However, Miller immediately issued a disclaimer and even provided a photo of the passport against the backdrop of a recent magazine in order to repeal the allegations of being un-patriotic.
Debut for Russia: hardly possible now.
Deanna Nolan (USA)
Age: 31
Sport: basketball
Background: When compared to Prince and Miller, Nolan looks like an innocent lamb. She didn’t get involved in any controversies, didn’t tear up the passport she received in 2007, and did not refuse to play for the national team. However, she was only invited there on several occasions and only to the training camps. In short, Nolan made use of her Russian citizenship only at her club, which enabled UGMK were to field one more foreigner.
Debut for Russia: never happened.
Lee Mi-Yeon (Korea)
Age: 18.
Sport: Short track.
Background: The total domination of the Asian skaters added by the slow progress of the Russians after the Vancouver Olympics forced the administrators of the Russian short track to turn their eyes to the East. Russia’s Korean coach Jimmy Jang recommended two young Korean sportswomen. One of them, Lee Mi-Yeon, managed to become two-time world juniors champion in her Korean times. Upon arriving to Russia, Lee Min immediately won a couple stages of the Russian Cup.
ISU’s requirements to pass a quarantine before being able to represent their new motherland internationally left the Koreans out of the World Cup. Furthermore, few month after the end of the season Lee Mi-Yeon was left here alone, as her less eminent compatriot Star Sheen was deemed not promising enough and sent home.
Debut for Russia: expected in the upcoming season, to which Lee Mi-Yeon is preparing with the first team.
Alexander Glebov (Slovenia)
Age: 28
Sport: Alpine skiing.
Background: The Slovenian who hadn’t been setting Thames on fire came up with the initiative to represent Russia by himself and suggested it to the Russian Skiing Federation. The officials quickly realized that even a skier, whose best result at a World Cup stage was 25th, could become the leader of our withering men’s team. By the spring of 2011 Glebov already had Russian passport.
Debut for Russia: will probably happen at the World Cup 2011-2012.
Jason Gunnlaugson, Justin Richter, Tyler Forrest (Canada)
Sport: curling.
Background: While the women’s curling team at least manage to keep up with the rest, regularly qualifying for the Olympics, the men’s team has long been making up for a hopelessly gloomy view. The three relatively young Canadians from the bottom of their homeland’s top-10 were thought to be a reasonable way out.
The experimental squad consisting of the Canadians and guided by coach Patty Vutric won the Russian Cup, but didn’t look any better than the native Russians in the World Tour. The experiment failed – that’s what probably the Russian Curling Federation thought and sent the Canadians back home after the end of season.
Debut for Russia: was scheduled for the December’s European Championship and cancelled only because of red tape.
Cirilo (Brazil)
Age: 31.
Sport: futsal.
Background: Not only the basketball managers resorted to circumvent the foreigners’ limit – their futsal colleagues also did that excessively. The managers of Dynamo Moscow decided to bet on Brazilians and in less than no time they already had five of them in the team. The first one to become a Russian was Cirilo Tadeus Cardoso Filho, who received a brand new Russian passport in 2005 and began scoring goals for the national team a month later.
The European Championship 2007 was the biggest success for the Brazilian. The team won bronze medals, while he became the top goalscorer. Today Cirilo still does a lot of that being the top goalscorer of the Euro 2012 qualification at the moment.
Debut for Russia: on November 28, 2005 in a friendly against Italy.
Pele Junior (Brazil)
Age: 38.
Sport: futsal.
Background: Pele Junior blazed the trail into the Team Russia together with Cirilo, the only difference between them being the fact that he only took part in one major tournament, the aforementioned Euro 2007. Since then, Pedro da Silva Odair Junior has never been called up again to the Russian national team despite the fact that he keeps on playing for Gazprom-Yugra from Yugorsk at quite a venerable age.
Debut for Russia: on November 28, 2005 in the same friendly against Italy.
Pula (Brazil)
Age: 30.
Sport: futsal.
Background: Junior’s place in the Russian team didn’t stand empty for too long – soon it was occupied by the newly-minted Russian citizen Pula, also from Dynamo. That same autumn he already starred at the World Cup, scoring 16 goals there. As of today, the Brazilian still gets called up regularly to the national team.
Debut for Russia: on September 30, 2008 at the World Cup.
The Russian Futsal Association did not seem to stop at that and invited two more Brazilians at the end of 2009. However, the fans reacted with an angry letter to the sports minister Vitaly Mutko protesting against the amount of Brazilians, so Robinho and Eder Lima weren’t called up ever since and their passport-acquiring procedure was put on hold.
Donata Rimsaite (Lithuania)
Age: 23.
Sport: pentathlon.
Background: In her native Lithuania Rimsaite faced poor training conditions and the lack of attention to herself and her sport. That, however, did not prevent her from becoming two-time winner of the World Cup final, as well as from making it to the podium individually at the 2010 World Cup. That was Donata’s last trophy as Lithuanian citizen – last winter she got married and moved to Russia.
Lithuanian officials have been producing quite a strange response, now giving the green light to her move to Russia, now changing their minds. Therefore, Rimsaite didn’t obtain the permission to represent Russia in all international competitions until April 2011 – and even that required some diplomatic efforts on the Russian side. Still, there are some difficulties with the London Olympics, as the IOC decision depends on the negotiations between the Russian and the Lithuanian Olympic Committees, the official outcome of which is yet to be produced.
Debut for Russia: on April 16, 2011 at the World Cup stage in Italy.
The naturalization of athletes from the former Soviet republics, especially Ukraine and Belarus, has become a common thing long ago and seems to be a pretty routine thing. For instance, volleyball national teams’ coaches have to choose from several Ukrainians the only one permitted by the regulations. Vladimir Alekno is at pains to choose between Alexander Butko, Nikolay Pavlov, and Maxim Panteleymonenko, while Vladimir Kuzyutkin preferred Natalia Goncharova to Anna Makarova.
Belarusian freestyle skier Timofey Slivets has also obtained the Russian pass recently and his sister Assol should become a Russian national soon. Pentathlete Alexander Lesun, who moved from Belarus to Russia in early 2010, and skater Tatiana Volosozhar, who preferred the Russian citizenship to the Ukrainian one, have both won silver medals at their first World Cups for Russia.
Georgians Karlo Maglakelidze and Grigol Tsnobiladze were on the long list of the Russian rugby team for the 2011 World Cup, while Grigol’s brother Valery Tsnobiladze was included in the final 30-man squad.
The most interesting foreigners Russia has in cricket, where its national team is made up entirely of foreign sportsmen. The squad that includes only Indians and Pakistanis even has some achievements: in 2010 they won silver at the European Championship. Taking into account cricket’s possible inclusion into the 2020 Olympics Games programme, that sounds quite promising.
by Alexey Avdokhin
