She does, but it has never been a problem for a Mozer team skater to get released by Rusfed.
Um . . . Stolbova probably isn't getting released. Hence the reason people are hoping Novoselov will be. It generally comes down to past results & how likely an athlete is to challenge the top athletes from one's own Federation. Russia lets a lot of quite competitive athletes go, but even the Russian Fed has its limits.
Sofia Polishchuk (Russia) is back on IcePartnerSearch. It seems it didn't work with German Shamraev.
As much as I know Elena hasn't talked at all about possible retirement or coming back next season. She looks in a really good place right now and quite happy though, judging from interviews.I would love if anyone had any information about Elena's plans for the future. I'm not big on social media so don't avail of Instagram etc. I was still holding out hope that she could stage a big comeback in the last couple of years but it seems a very faint hope at best now, especially with the three graduates into seniors in Russia this year. I'll miss her absolute star quality.
And as an aside, I'll take nothing as official until it's stamped, filed and pinned to the notice board in triplicate as regards retirements. I'll use the Bond analogy - after Spectre, Daniel Craig was asked if he would be back to reprise the role of James Bond to which he replied at the time “Now? I’d rather … slash my wrists,” he replied. “No, not at the moment. Not at all. That’s fine. I’m over it at the moment. We’re done. All I want to do is move on.” He will be in the 25th Bond movie due this year! So hopefully, some of our favourite skaters either making talk about retirement without saying it out loud absolutely officially etc or some of those widely rumoured to be finished will stay around for another little while...
See post #66. Skaters who are presenting in shows or marketing themselves via sponsors tend to maintain their amateur status as long as it can help them procure work. There is a monetary incentive not to announce a retirement and little to no incentive to announce one unless you are looking to acquire a different line of work. Such as looking for a commentary position or one partner looking to continue an amateur career with another partner. (And really, it doesn't hurt to keep your options open. If you are hoping to maintain a professional career, then a potential return to competitive skating further down the road could increase your profitability. It's quite unlikely V&M or C&L will feel compelled to return to competitive skating at this stage of their careers, but there is no harm at this point in time in keeping their options open).
... What I was trying to get at is if V and M and the Italians are strategically not saying retirement maybe WEAPO would have been wise to as well. …
There already is a realistic chance Canada could win a team medal.I wonder if they would come back to competitive skating if there was a realistic chance Canada could win a team olympic medal?
It all depends whether both of them want to continue show skating.
Chloe Choinard (Canada) is on IPS, so no senior beginnings for her and Mathieu Ostiguy.