Fencing is most often a number of the least visual Olympic occasions, however a 12 months out from the Paris Video games it’s offering political, carrying and familial drama associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
3 Russian fencers who renounced the 2022 invasion in written declarations and now reside in the USA 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 best Russian trainer has been fired after a celeb épée couple left 3 weeks in the past for the USA. And a high-profile fencing divorce has touched the higher reaches of the Russian Olympic Committee or even ended in the access of “raspberry frappé” into the lexicon as a sword-fighting put-down.
Some of the 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 received the lads’s saber festival 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 whilst the 2 held a Ukrainian flag in a defiant display of give a boost to. Lokhanov had “Liberty” tattooed on his proper forearm in a while after he arrived in the USA in Might 2022.
The invasion represented a jarring flip within the private {and professional} lifetime of Lokhanov, who had married into the primary circle of relatives of Russian fencing and gave the impression embedded in a lifetime of athletic royalty.
In 2020, Lokhanov married Sofia Pozdnyakova, 26, who later received gold medals on the Tokyo Olympics within the ladies’s 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 temporarily dissolved, and the breakup changed into public remaining September. Lokhanov mentioned the divorce had befell for a number of causes, without equal one being the warfare. “I simply mentioned that I will be able to now not return to Russia,” Lokhanov mentioned in a Zoom interview from Phoenix, which he known as his first in English. In follow-up written remarks, he added, “I determined I may just now not reside in a rustic that kills blameless Ukrainians.”
Each Lokhanov and Pozdynakova have mentioned that she declined his invitation to depart Russia with him. She has mentioned that she filed for divorce and that she was once thankful to Lokhanov for lots of issues however that the couple had long gone in “other instructions.”
Pozdnyakov, the Russian Olympic leader — chatting with Fit TV, a sports activities channel owned via Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled power company — showed the dissolution of his daughter’s marriage. With an obvious swipe at Western frivolousness, he advised Fit TV remaining September that his daughter’s upbringing and “love for the motherland” had allowed her to keep away from “the unhappy destiny of anxious fans of raspberry frappé and yellow scooters.”
Lokhanov mentioned he concept the statement was once humorous and unsurprising, even supposing he was once now not reasonably positive why it have been made. “I by no means had a scooter,” he mentioned with a grin. “I’m a large espresso lover, however now not frappé.”
In an Instagram publish remaining December, Lokhanov mentioned that he had entered a “in point of fact black duration” after his mom died of Covid-19 at age 43 on the finish of 2021. After completing a disappointing twenty fourth within the saber festival on the Tokyo Olympics, he additionally confronted the second one of 2 surgical procedures in Germany for a hip harm that threatened his fencing profession.
He flew to Munich for the second one surgical operation on Feb. 23, 2022. An afternoon later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Throughout weeks of restoration in Germany, Lokhanov pondered whether or not he must go back to Russia. As an alternative, he flew to Atlanta in Might 2022 to stick with a chum after which won a call for participation to sign up for a fencing membership in San Diego.
He mentioned he didn’t believe himself courageous, most effective to have made a herbal determination he does now not remorseful about. To stay in Russia, he mentioned, “You wish to have to put out of your mind that killing other folks is unhealthy.”
When the invasion started, “the entirety cut up into black and white” for him, Lokhanov mentioned, including: “Once I pay attention that the entirety isn’t transparent, what isn’t transparent? It’s as transparent as imaginable. To kill other folks is unhealthy.”
Some other Russian fencer now in the USA, Sergey Bida, 30, received gold within the crew épée match on the American championships, two years after successful a silver medal for Russia in the similar match on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“American athletes cross to Russia and finally end up in jail,” Jack Wiener, a New York legal professional who represents Lokhanov and Bida, mentioned, regarding the basketball celebrity 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 most effective Italy, France and Hungary in successful Olympic medals. So embarrassing was once the departure remaining month of épée stars like Bida and his spouse, Violetta Kraphina Bida, additionally a Tokyo Olympian, that Russia has fired its nationwide épée crew trainer, in keeping with Tass, the state information company. (Kraphina Bida didn’t compete in the USA championships.)
The very talked-about trainer, Alexander Glazunov, was once brushed aside “because of the flight of his athletes to the USA with out the consent” of the Russian Fencing Federation, Tass reported on July 1.
World federations for some sports activities, together with fencing, have begun granting eligibility to athletes from Russia and Belarus — a detailed Russian best friend that equipped a staging flooring for the invasion of Ukraine — to compete as neutrals with out nationwide symbols, following a trail created via the World Olympic Committee.
That trail is anticipated to increase to the Paris Video games. If this is the case, athletes from the 2 nations may just doubtlessly compete if they’ve now not publicly counseled the Russian invasion and aren’t affiliated with the Russian army or state safety businesses.
However Lokhanov and Sergey Bida have given up an excellent deal in leaving Russia, together with most likely their instant Olympic desires. They don’t seem to be Americans, so they aren’t eligible to compete for the USA on the international fencing championships, which start July 22 in Milan. And with out odd executive intervention, this is a lengthy shot that they’re going to achieve American citizenship earlier than the Paris Olympics.
There seems to be 0 likelihood that Russia would welcome them again. Lokhanov mentioned he had no need to compete for Russia once more. The most productive choices for him and Bida, in keeping with Wiener, their legal professional, seem to be discovering a 3rd nation that may grant them citizenship for the Paris Video games or in the hunt for to compete for the Refugee Olympic Workforce.
Or, Lokhanov mentioned, most likely he can defer his dream and compete within the 2028 Olympics up Interstate 5 from San Diego in Los Angeles.
“I dream about to head for the Olympics, using my very own automobile,” he mentioned.
