Russia-Ukraine War: Effects on Gymn World

[MaryClare]

Not only would the individual sports federations have to allow it, but the countries hosting these events would have to grant visas to the athletes and officials.

Officials and coaches not being granted visas has hampered our athletes competing in invitational meets even before the present international sanctions

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Interesting to have the set date. I think previously, we’d just worked out that it would have to be about mid March.

 

[KristyJ]

I do wonder if trying to compete as independent will be tantamount to renouncing one’s citizenship, possibly permanently, as well. Also in many sports your federation has to release you, though usually there is a time-since-last-competed clause in that that may be made easier by most athletes not competing internationally last year.

 

[Rich]

I wonder if the news is correct and Russia’s economy keeps shrinking, if the war drags, would Putin be able to continually fund sports.

 

[MaryClare]

It is not true. The economy bounced back very quickly after the initial sanctions were implemented and reached an all time high in the summer. Today it is slightly higher than where it was this time last year.

Also, I can’t think of any Olympic sport that is solely state funded these days, almost all are sponsored in addition by private enterprise. For artistic gymnastics it is the bank VTB, for rhythmic is it Gazprom

 

[KristyJ]

I would be curious where you are getting that data

 

[rlayt]

I read Melnikova opened a school. If the war continues on and Russia’s gymnasts can’t participate in international competition how will it affect enrollment in sports?

I guess we won’t know real enrollment numbers since it might reflect poorly on Russia.

 

[MaryClare]

By typing into Google “ruble:dollar”.

It’s that unbelievable?

 

[MaryClare]

Sports are cultural here. It wouldn’t even register in any parents mind not to enrol their child in sport because of the international ban.

Melnikova’s school is a private school, so it has to work like a business. If there are not enough students, it will fold.

 

[Doug1233]

I wouldn’t call the exchange rate “the economy” though, tbh. Although of course the rate shows how confident foreign investors are in holding Rubles.

 

[KristyJ]

It was more of a “I have info without a source” moment, I always ask

 

[JaJa]

I wouldn’t call the exchange rate “the economy” though, tbh.

True, but until now the Russian economy has weathered the sanctions much better than was initially expected. This is largely thanks to oil exports that were exempt from sanctions until December. There are now some indications that the Russian economy is doing less well – perhaps in part due to the impact of sanctions but likely far more due to the impact of the war effort itself, e.g. workers being drafted, civilian production being taken over for military use etc etc.

 

[MaryClare]

We won’t really know until the summer. Winter is always a time of low economic activity here

 

[Doug1233]

True, but until now the Russian economy has weathered the sanctions much better than was initially expected.

Sure, that’s true. But many things about Russia’s war happened differently than expectations.

 

[makam]

I have a coworker who would break out the most insane shit and so I finally got pretty reflexive with “Source? And it can’t be some message board post you read somewhere.” He finally laid off because all his stupid shit came from incredibly unreliable sources. As soon as he started in with his “Obama blah…” I’d be like “dude, I don’t need to hear your wank fiction.” We, uh, didn’t really get along. /threadjack

 

[KristyJ]

Sadly it’s all too common that people don’t consider/critically evaluate the source of their info, even though it’s becoming more and more needed. It’s why I’ve built that reflex, too.

 

[MaryClare]

I see lots of things online that I’m sceptical about, so I verify that information myself. In this case, it would have taken all of 10 seconds on Google to

“Source please” responses are in my opinion, a passive aggressive way of making the point that you don’t believe someone.

 

[Rich]

NY Times article Russia posts a $47 billion budget deficit for 2022, its second highest in the post-Soviet era. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/world/europe/russia-deficit-economy.html?searchResultPosition=2

 

[Doug1233]

I cannot imagine it comes cheap to conscript all your young men and send them hundreds of miles across the country.

 

[JDB]

I’m not gonna speculate on Russian economics on a gymnastics forum. But let’s remember Russia continued to fund international sports during its economic meltdown in the 90s. The post-war recovery will be rough. But Russia will still send international delegations no matter what.