The President of Russia deprived the Russian biathlete of citizenship – Lydia Zhurauskaite will be a warrior for the Lithuanian national team
Since the end of February, Russian sports have been in international traffic. No wonder the country is due to the large number of athletes. Therefore, the fact that one of the athletes moved to another team is hardly surprising. But one athlete nevertheless resolutely did it, because she simply renounced Russian citizenship.
“We are waiting for rejection”
It’s worth saying right away that biathlete Lidia Zhurauskaite made the decision to change sports citizens not now, when our sport was at the airport, but back in the fall of 2021. Then the 23-year-old athlete from Murmansk finally realized that she had no prospects in the Russian national team.
Lydia was born in Murmansk, started biathlon late, at the age of 14, and did not achieve much success. Yes, Zhurauskaite has the title of master of sports, but she has not received a single challenge in the Russian national team: neither in junior, nor in youth, and even more so in those around her. In the case of 2020/2021, the biathlete performing in Russia never got on the podium and did not get into the season only in 27th place in the total. What are the chances of getting into the national team?
Lidia decided to choose Lithuania as new visitors to her career and came to her home. Usually, the change of sports citizenship is not noticed in any way by the change of passport. Many Russian biathletes represent too much of the population while remaining Russian citizens, such as Natalya Ushkina (Romania) or Timofey Lapshin (South Korea).
In the case of Zhurauskaite, everything happened differently. She did not get into a new team with the help of a new sports passport, thanks to obtaining Lithuanian citizenship. Great-grandfather Zhurauskaite is Lithuanian, so citizenship could be obtained through a simplified repatriation system. But for this it was necessary to choose a Russian passport. A not particularly promising biathlete decided on this, because the chances of getting into the Lithuanian national team are very significant, especially since she did not enter the Russian national team, and the Lithuanian federation is ready to help with the transition.
“Lydia has already received citizenship under the restoration program – the great-grandfather of the athlete was Lithuanian,” Arunas Daugirdas, head of the Lithuanian Biathlon Federation, explained the situation exactly. – During the year, with the help of the federation, all archival documents were collected. We have received a decision to grant her Lithuanian citizenship, now we are waiting for the only certificate from Russia – about renunciation of the citizenship of this country.”
“My goal is the Olympic Games”
The biathlete called the goal of the transition the desire to get to the Olympic Games, which, without a doubt, are the main dream of most athletes. At first, Lydia wanted to have time to change her citizenship in Beijing, but it didn’t work out.
“My main goal is the Olympic Games in Italy. I can’t compete at the Beijing Olympics because we can’t get citizenship,” Zhurauskaite said back in November 2021. – But it is very important for me that I was noticed and given the opportunity. I see how the president and the coach of the federation are trying to make me feel as comfortable as possible here. I am very grateful to Lithuania.”
Lidia has good chances to get into the national team and shoot in Lithuania. The best Lithuanian biathlete Gabriele Leshchinskaitė took 81st place in the total at the last World Cup, taking 24 points in her asset. Such a prospect, on a par with rivals in biathlon in Murmansk, according to one of the former coaches of the athlete Alexander Kosorygin, has become a transition point.
“It should be said that Lydia wanted to decide on her own. Murmansk athletes in general very often change others, moving to the regions. The continuous reconstruction of the Dolina Uyuta sports complex has been going on for 15 years and is still not over. The poor girl “grew up at a construction site” and does not want to “die” on it,” Kosorygin explained.
Lydia Zhurauskaite
Photo: From the personal archive of Lidia Zhurauskaite
“She will be sorry”
On July 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a decree in which he granted the request of a biathlete from Murmansk and deprived her of Russian citizenship. And this event immediately caused a stir.
“She is a promising biathlete. In Lithuania, it will look very decent: if not the first number, then among the leaders, – shared his opinion, two-time Olympic champion Dmitry Vasiliev. – In order to get into the national team in Russia, you have to work hard. A very bold decision offered by modern realities. I think she will be sorry. After French time, she will catch that she made a mistake. Although I may be wrong. Maybe she will be a successful soldier for Lithuania. Everything is quite possible. This can hardly be called a loss for the Russian biathlon. She is a capable athlete, but we have a lot of our own.”
Commentator Dmitry Guberniev, however, said that the departure of Zhurauskaite for the domestic biathlon is absolutely not excluded, and the fact of renunciation of Russian citizenship should not be inflated.
“This is not a precedent, but a special case. She has Lithuanian origins, she went in a special way, the procedure is prescribed. She was not in the national team, nowhere. The processes will go if someone changes sports citizenship, becomes a world champion and an Olympic champion. No process went through. Is it possible to count the losses for the Russian biathlon? Not”.
It is not yet clear when we will see Zhurauskaite in the form of the Lithuanian national team. Although, maybe in a new meeting she got a new breath and once we saw her success at the World Cup. This has happened many times already.