Russia, Ukraine and Curling: One Year Later

One year ago, Russia attacked Ukraine and the sport world hasn’t been the same.

The military action was a violation of the Olympic Truce which had been signed by all 193 Olympic nations, including Russia, just two months earlier.

Within a day of the assault, one of Sweden’s top curling athletes was calling for Russia to be stripped of hosting duties for the European Championships, which had been announced days earlier.

Under pressure, the World Curling Federation acquiesced.

Within two days, another WCF emergency session had installed a rule change to permit the governing body to remove Russia from “any WCF event.”

Russia and chief ally Belarus were subsequently banned from world and European curling championships. The rule has been renewed twice, and currently runs through the end of the 2023 curling season.

Days after Russia’s removal from the world curling event calendar, the Russian wheelchair curling team—already labelled “RCF” due to sanctions following the Sochi 2014 doping scandal and subsequent cover up—was booted out of the Paralympic Winter Games. Organizers had no choice, as other teams had threatened to withdraw from the Games.

So where are we today, one year later?

On the battlefield, the war has reached a general stalemate and spring offensives are expected from both Russia and Ukraine.

The bureaucratic war also continues, as numerous sport organizations actively seek ways to bring Russian athletes back into the sport fold. One of these is the International Olympic Committee, which issued blanket bans on Russian athletes in the wake of the war but which is now lobbying to permit Russians to compete as neutrals at the Paris 2024 Summer Games.

In late January, the Olympic Council of Asia said that Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete at this fall’s 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. The Asian Games often serve as a qualifier for the Olympic Games.

There have been suggestions that Russian athletes should have to declare their opposition to their government in order to compete as neutrals.

All in all, the issues have the sport world spinning in circles.

And what of the current curling scenes in Russia and Ukraine?

UKRAINE

The Ukrainians were initially displaced from their country as they fled the war. With only their curling shoes and no other equipment, the women’s and men’s team members were housed in Finland and given equipment and curling ice for a training camp.

The women’s team then went 2-5 at the Euro-C championships in Lithuania, while the men’s team shocked the curling world by losing the final and winning silver, thus qualifying them for the European B Championships.

Both men’s and women’s team were then relocated to Salt Lake City, USA for a lengthy spring and summer training camp.

On-ice results in late 2022 were mixed. The men’s Euro-B adventure saw them finish with a 3-4 won/loss group record and lose a relegation series, dropping them back into this year’s Euro-C event. 

At the World Junior B Qualifier, the women placed third in their pool at 3-2 but did not advance, while the men finished third at 4-2 and lost a quarterfinal to Italy.

Both four-player team skips—Anastasiia Kotova and Eduard Nikolov—teamed up for the World Mixed Doubles Qualifier and finished fourth in their group with a 2-3 record.

The teams finished out training in Talinn, Estonia and celebrated Christmas at the home of their coach, Erkki Lill.

The Ukrainian curlers still face a number of obstacles. Three athletes have graduated and replacements are needed. Many of the athletes decided to return to Ukraine in January.

It is hoped that support will continue to come from curling organizations in order to aid the teams in competing at the next European C Championships starting Apr. 28 in Scotland. Groups that have rendered much-needed assistance to date include the World Curling Federation, Hardline Curling and the Swedish Olympic Committee.

The Ukrainians also appear in the 2023 Curling Cares Fundraising Calendar, in the month of December. The athletes will have the choice of where to direct their share of online sales.

RUSSIA

Russia remains banned from World Curling Federation competitions, although the Russian Curling Federation remains a WCF member association. RCF delegates attended the last WCF Congress and Annual General Assembly at Lausanne, Switzerland in September 2022.

Curling continues in the nation. Regional and national championships are held at a variety of locations including Novosibirsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara and Sochi, the site of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Training camps for elite teams have been hosted at Kislovodsk, 200 kilometres from Sochi.

There were initial fears that Russia’s partial troop mobilization in September and October of 2022 would include athletes, however that did not happen.

The bite of international sanctions has hit Russian curling in terms of stone and ice maintenance equipment. In mid-January, the RCF announced plans to start domestic production of curling stones and other technical equipment.

The stones come from Transbaikalia in the far east of Russia, while curling shoes are being manufactured in St. Petersburg. An “ice machine” has also been developed in the Krasnodar region of the country.