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Fencing is often among the many least seen Olympic occasions, however a 12 months out from the Paris Video games it’s offering political, sporting and familial drama associated to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Three Russian fencers who renounced the 2022 invasion in written declarations and now dwell in america have been granted eligibility to compete as impartial athletes, representing no nation, within the American summer time nationwide championships that conclude Sunday in Phoenix.
And that’s just the start of the drama. A prime Russian coach has been fired after a star épée couple left three weeks in the past for america. And a high-profile fencing divorce has touched the higher reaches of the Russian Olympic Committee and even led to the entry of “raspberry frappé” into the lexicon as a sword-fighting put-down.
One of many Russian fencers now coaching and training in San Diego, Konstantin Lokhanov, 24, is a former son-in-law of the president of Russia’s Olympic Committee and the ex-husband of a two-time Russian Olympic fencing gold medalist. He gained the boys’s saber competitors on the American summer time championships after having competed for Russia on the 2021 Tokyo Video games.
After successful in Phoenix, the 6-foot-6 Lokhanov posed with a Ukrainian fencer whereas the 2 held a Ukrainian flag in a defiant present of assist. Lokhanov had “Liberty” tattooed on his proper forearm shortly after he arrived in america in Might 2022.
The invasion represented a jarring flip within the private {and professional} lifetime of Lokhanov, who had married into the primary household of Russian fencing and appeared embedded in a lifetime of athletic royalty.
In 2020, Lokhanov married Sofia Pozdnyakova, 26, who later gained gold medals on the Tokyo Olympics within the ladies’s particular person and crew saber occasions. She is the daughter of Stanislav Pozdnyakov, 49, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee and himself a four-time Olympic gold medalist in fencing.
However the marriage rapidly dissolved, and the breakup grew to become public final September. Lokhanov stated the divorce had occurred for a number of causes, the final word one being the conflict. “I simply stated that I can’t return to Russia,” Lokhanov stated in a Zoom interview from Phoenix, which he known as his first in English. In follow-up written remarks, he added, “I made a decision I might not dwell in a rustic that kills harmless Ukrainians.”
Each Lokhanov and Pozdynakova have stated that she declined his invitation to depart Russia with him. She has stated that she filed for divorce and that she was grateful to Lokhanov for a lot of issues however that the couple had gone in “totally different instructions.”
Pozdnyakov, the Russian Olympic chief — chatting with Match TV, a sports activities channel owned by Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled power company — confirmed the dissolution of his daughter’s marriage. With an obvious swipe at Western frivolousness, he informed Match TV final September that his daughter’s upbringing and “love for the motherland” had allowed her to keep away from “the unhappy destiny of frightened lovers of raspberry frappé and yellow scooters.”
Lokhanov stated he thought the comment was humorous and unsurprising, even when he was not fairly certain why it had been made. “I by no means had a scooter,” he stated with a smile. “I’m an enormous espresso lover, however not frappé.”
In an Instagram publish final December, Lokhanov stated that he had entered a “actually black interval” after his mom died of Covid-19 at age 43 on the finish of 2021. After ending a disappointing twenty fourth within the saber competitors on the Tokyo Olympics, he additionally confronted the second of two surgical procedures in Germany for a hip harm that threatened his fencing profession.
He flew to Munich for the second surgical procedure on Feb. 23, 2022. A day later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Throughout weeks of restoration in Germany, Lokhanov contemplated whether or not he ought to return to Russia. As a substitute, he flew to Atlanta in Might 2022 to stick with a pal after which acquired an invite to hitch a fencing membership in San Diego.
He stated he didn’t contemplate himself courageous, solely to have made a pure resolution he doesn’t remorse. To stay in Russia, he stated, “It’s good to overlook that killing different individuals is unhealthy.”
When the invasion started, “every little thing break up into black and white” for him, Lokhanov stated, including: “Once I hear that every little thing isn’t clear, what isn’t clear? It’s as clear as attainable. To kill different individuals is unhealthy.”
One other Russian fencer now in america, Sergey Bida, 30, gained gold within the crew épée occasion on the American championships, two years after successful a silver medal for Russia in the identical occasion on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“American athletes go to Russia and find yourself in jail,” Jack Wiener, a New York lawyer who represents Lokhanov and Bida, stated, referring to the basketball star Brittney Griner. “Russian fencers come to the U.S. and get up with gold medals.”
A 3rd Russian, Oleg Knysh, 25, additionally competed within the American championships.
Amongst fencing powers, Russia and the previous Soviet Union path solely Italy, France and Hungary in successful Olympic medals. So embarrassing was the departure final month of épée stars like Bida and his spouse, Violetta Kraphina Bida, additionally a Tokyo Olympian, that Russia has fired its nationwide épée crew coach, in response to Tass, the state information company. (Kraphina Bida didn’t compete in america championships.)
The extremely regarded coach, Alexander Glazunov, was dismissed “as a result of flight of his athletes to america with out the consent” of the Russian Fencing Federation, Tass reported on July 1.
Worldwide federations for some sports activities, together with fencing, have begun granting eligibility to athletes from Russia and Belarus — a detailed Russian ally that offered a staging floor for the invasion of Ukraine — to compete as neutrals with out nationwide symbols, following a path created by the Worldwide Olympic Committee.
That path is anticipated to increase to the Paris Video games. In that case, athletes from the 2 nations might doubtlessly compete in the event that they haven’t publicly endorsed the Russian invasion and should not affiliated with the Russian army or state safety companies.
However Lokhanov and Sergey Bida have given up an awesome deal in leaving Russia, together with maybe their rapid Olympic goals. They aren’t Americans, so they aren’t eligible to compete for america on the world fencing championships, which start July 22 in Milan. And with out extraordinary authorities intervention, it’s a lengthy shot that they may acquire American citizenship earlier than the Paris Olympics.
There seems to be zero probability that Russia would welcome them again. Lokhanov stated he had no want to compete for Russia once more. One of the best choices for him and Bida, in response to Wiener, their lawyer, seem like discovering a 3rd nation that may grant them citizenship for the Paris Video games or in search of to compete for the Refugee Olympic Group.
Or, Lokhanov stated, maybe he can defer his dream and compete within the 2028 Olympics up Interstate 5 from San Diego in Los Angeles.
“I dream about to go for the Olympics, driving my very own automobile,” he stated.
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