The International Skating Union (ISU) announced on Tuesday it is banning athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus over the countries' involvement in the ongoing clashes in Ukraine until further notice.
The news comes as another blow for Russia's figure skating, the discipline that nation has enjoyed continued success and takes great pride in, following the controversy it faced during the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Despite one of its representatives, Kamila Valieva, testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) was allowed to keep the gold medal in the team competition, which prompted numerous negative comments.
Later on, following the invasion of Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee recommended to sports organizations around the world to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus from its events. The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) suspended Russia from the World Cup. Formula One also canceled the 2022 Russian Grand Prix.
