Country Changes in Figure Skating - Notable Examples

Notable Examples

• Dianne de Leeuw, born and raised in the United States and having a Dutch mother, won the silver medal at the 1976 Olympics, the 1975 World Championships, and the 1976 European Championships, all representing the Netherlands.

• Alexei Tikhonov, born and raised in the Soviet Union, won the bronze medal at the 1989 World Junior Figure Skating Championships with Irina Saifutdinova, representing the Soviet Union. He then competed for Japan with Yukiko Kawasaki. He paired up with Maria Petrova in 1998 and resumed competing for Russia.

• Marina Anissina, born and raised in the Soviet Union, won the 1990 and 1992 World Junior Figure Skating Championships with Ilia Averbukh. When she teamed up with Gwendal Peizerat, representing France, she was the recipient of accelerated citizenship so she could represent France at the Olympic Games. She and Peizerat went on to win two Olympic medals, one of them gold.

• Kyoko Ina, born in Japan but raised in the United States, competed for Japan for many years as a single skater, placing as high as fourth at the Japanese national championships. She switched to skating for the United States, and skated pairs starting in 1991. She competed at three Olympic Games for the United States.

• Rena Inoue, born and raised in Japan, competed for Japan as a single and pairs skater at the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Games. She moved to the United States and teamed up with John Baldwin. Inoue received American citizenship in 2005 and she and Baldwin competed together for the United States at the 2006 Olympics.

• Yuko Kawaguchi, born and raised in Japan and competed for Japan as a single skater. Due to the lack of male partners in Japan and the federation’s focus on singles skaters, Kawaguchi’s coach paired her with a Russian partner. She then teamed up with an American and competed at the United States Figure Skating Championships. She teamed up finally with Russian Alexander Smirnov and compete for Russia. The pair have won Russian Nationals (2008-2010), 2010 European Championship, 2009-2010 World bronze medals and competed for Russia at the 2010 Olympics where they placed 4th. In 2008, she became a Russian citizen.

• Ukrainian pairs skaters Aliona Savchenko and Tatiana Volosozhar. Aliona Savchenko originally skated with Stanislav Morozov for Ukraine and after their split, was unable to bring in a partner from Russia to skate for Ukraine. She moved to compete in Germany with Robin Szolkowy while Morozov teamed up with Volosozhar. When Morozov retired in 2010, Volosozhar had a try out with Maxim Trankov of Russia and she would go on to switch countries and compete for Russia. However, although Volosozhar was born in Ukraine, both of her parents are of Russian origin and she was entitled to Russian citizenship from birth. She won the 2011 Russian pair title with Trankov. Savchenko and Szolkowy are the 2010 Winter Olympics Bronze medalists.

• In a rare case of a complete team switching countries, French-born and Canadian-raised ice dancing team Isabelle & Paul Duchesnay originally competed for Canada. They switched to skating for France in 1985 and won the silver medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics for France.

• Several skaters representing Israel have previously competed for other countries. Michael Shmerkin, Roman Serov, and Sergei Sakhnovski represented the Soviet Union or Russia, while Galit Chait, born in Israel, skated in the United States national championships.

Other skaters have not represented their native country but move to another country for skating purposes and may start representing it when not yet a citizen, such as Canadian Tanith Belbin representing the U.S. and numerous American ice dancers: Kaitlyn Weaver and Piper Gilles (Canada), Allison Reed (Georgia), Isabella Tobias and Katherine Copely (Lithuania), Caitlin Mallory (Estonia).