Anastasia Gubanova (Georgia)
Anastasia Gubanova, a native of Tolyatti, had a fairly successful junior career in Russia.
In the 2016/17 season, she won two stages of the Grand Prix at her age and became the silver medalist of the final tournament after Alina Zagitova.
But this happened before the trend for the development of ultra-c elements reigned in women's singles skating.
Gubanova did not pick it up and could no longer compete at the national level.
With marks rarely exceeding 200 points, she did not rise above ninth place in the Russian championships and could hardly dream of getting into big tournaments.
The silver of the final of the Cup of the country did not affect her future prospects in any way, since the athlete completely missed the next season after that.
Everything changed right before the Olympics.
Gubanova was invited to the Georgian national team, which had the opportunity to send one single skater to Beijing.
The 19-year-old athlete successfully restarted her career and broke her personal record at her first Finlandia Trophy tournament, gaining 203.91 points.
Gubanova also won the Golden Skate of Zagreb and competed at the European Championships, where she finished seventh.
In Beijing, she will perform not only in individual competitions, where she will try to enter the top 12, but also in the team tournament.
Elizaveta Zhuk (Czech Republic)
Elizaveta Zhuk was born in Yekaterinburg, where she left as a child to seriously engage in figure skating.
She paired up with Yegor Britkov and tried to get into the Russian junior team with him, but it didn’t work out.
The main achievement of the duo was the silver medal of the junior Golden Skate of Zagreb, where they lost to Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov.
After that, the couple stopped active performances and broke up.
The opportunity to resume his career came up in 2019, when an experienced Czech Martin Bidarzh, who participated in the Pyeongchang Olympics, needed a new partner.
Zhuk moved to his national team and changed her surname to Zhukova.
At the last World Championships, the couple took 15th place and won a ticket to Beijing, after which she was immediately included in the Olympic team.
Zhuk and Bidarzha can hardly be called contenders for medals - according to a personal record, they occupy the penultimate place among the participants in the Olympics, ahead of only Ukrainians Sofia Golichenko and Artyom Darensky.
Maria Kazakova and Georgy Revia (Georgia)
Maria Kazakova was born in Moscow, and her current ice dancing partner Georgy Revia is in Odintsovo near Moscow.
Both of them did not play for Russia for long in their youth, but at first Revia decided that it would be easier for him to represent his historical homeland, and a year later, Kazakova offered to compete together and also changed sports citizenship.
The new Georgian duo turned out to be very promising.
Kazakova and Revia performed well at the junior level and won the Grand Prix final at their age in the 2019/20 season - due to the coronavirus pandemic, they are still the current winners of the tournament.
The next success awaited the couple at the world championship among juniors.
The dancers took second place and brought Georgia the first medal in the history of these competitions.
At the adult level, the couple was already frankly unlucky.
Kazakova and Revia could have competed at the Grand Prix stages, at the World Championships, and at the recent European Championships, but each time they were forced to withdraw.
Nevertheless, the couple performed at the Nebelhorn Trophy and won an Olympic ticket, so they will go to Beijing.
Maurice Kvitelashvili (Georgia)
Maurice Kvitelashvili can be called the strongest participant in the Olympics among those who played for the Russian team in the past.
Before moving to Georgia in 2016, he managed to perform twice at the Grand Prix stages, but each time unsuccessfully.
At the national championships, a native of Moscow did not rise above eighth place, so he did not have any special prospects in Russia.
With the change of citizenship, Kvitelashvili took a big step forward.
Sometimes a student of Eteri Tutberidze performed in such a way that he made Russian fans regret the loss of such a single skater.
The biggest achievements of the Georgian figure skater were the bronze of the European Championship and the victory at the last stage of the Grand Prix in Russia.
At that tournament, Kvitelashvili set a personal record, which, for example, exceeds the official achievements of Andrei Mozalev and Evgeny Semenenko.
The Beijing Olympics will be the second for the Georgian single skater.
Four years ago, he took only 24th place, but now he has the right to count on at least getting into the top ten.
In addition, Kvitelashvili will be the flag bearer for his national team at the opening ceremony.
Ekaterina Kurakova (Poland)
Ekaterina Kurakova was born in Moscow and trained at the CSKA school under the guidance of Inna Goncharenko.
Even as a child, she won children's tournaments in Europe and twice won competitions in Torun, Poland.
There, they paid attention to the promising junior in time and immediately offered to change citizenship.
As if anticipating the competition she would face in Russia, Kurakova agreed.
After moving to the new national team, Kurakova was even able to train in the group of Brian Orser, which gave her a noticeable boost to her career.
This season, investments in the figure skater paid off - she brought Poland the first Olympic ticket in women's skating in 12 years.
In addition, she took fifth place at the European Championships.
Kurakova does not have ultra-c elements in her arsenal, but among those who do not practice quadruple jumps or triple axels, she has the right to be considered one of the best skaters.
Vladimir Litvintsev (Azerbaijan)
Vladimir Litvintsev took his first steps in figure skating in Moscow after moving with his family from Ukhta, where he studied with the same coach as Dmitry Aliev.
Even before the young skater began to perform at the international level, he received an offer from Azerbaijan.
Without trying himself in the Russian team, Litvintsev immediately responded to him.
It is worth noting that Azerbaijan almost never has its own figure skaters, and at the Olympic Games the country has always been represented by either Russians or American Christine Fraser.
Litvintsev has not yet achieved noticeable success, at least against the background of former compatriots.
However, at the same time, he had a chance to perform at the World and European Championships, and at the same time he qualified for the Beijing Olympics, where he would become the standard bearer at the opening ceremony.
In addition to Litvintsev, only one more figure skater Ekaterina Ryabova will represent Azerbaijan - the country has not qualified in other sports.
Konstantin Milyukov (Belarus)
Konstantin Milyukov started figure skating in Kazan to learn how to confidently skate for hockey, and eventually stayed in this sport.
He did not achieve great success, and even participated in the Russian championships only when tickets to the Olympics were played for them.
The only time Milyukov attracted the attention of fans was in 2018, when he took third place in the short program at the national championship, but still remained without a medal.
Progress was also noted in Belarus, where they were invited shortly after the performance.
Milyukov was provided with conditions for training in Minsk, thanks to which he finally penetrated international tournaments.
The 27-year-old figure skater began to go up and achieved the desired goal - on the fourth attempt, he nevertheless qualified for the Olympic Games.
Ekaterina Ryabova (Azerbaijan)
The story of Ekaterina Ryabova is very similar to how Litvintsev's career began.
She could represent Russia, studying at the Evgeni Plushenko Academy, but quite early she was called to the Azerbaijani national team.
This allowed her to immediately avoid the problems with selection for international competitions that many Russian girls face.
And a fairly frequent sports practice allowed Ryabova to become one of the most prominent figure skaters, at least in Europe.
Twice at the championship of the continent she took sixth place, and at the world championship her best result was 12th line.
During her career, Ryabova has not yet scored more than 200 points, which is the main benchmark for single skaters, but she will have such a chance at the next start - in Beijing.
Karina Safina and Luka Berulava (Georgia)
A couple of Chelyabinsk Karina Safina and Muscovite Luka Berulava live and train in Perm, but they represent not Russia, but Georgia.
From the very beginning of his career, Berulava decided that he would play for the homeland of his parents, and even managed to represent the country at the Youth Olympic Games, where, together with Alina Butaeva, he won bronze and became the champion of the team tournament.
But then the couple parted ways, and Safina became a new partner for Berulava.
The Georgian duo started this season with a performance at the junior Grand Prix, but then showed up for the adult Nebelhorn Trophy and immediately won a ticket to the Olympics.
Their rather unexpected success allowed Georgia to get to the team tournament.
True, on it the team will be represented only by skaters who were born and are engaged in figure skating in Russia.
Safina and Berulava have one more achievement.
At the last European Championship, they took fourth place, which for a junior pair can be considered a success, because they beat all rivals, except for recent compatriots.
Victoria Safonova (Belarus)
Together with Milyukov, the pair Victoria Yatsenko - Daniil Parkman and the single skater Victoria Safonova also moved to the Belarusian national team in the current Olympic cycle.
The duet did not have a new career stage, and Safonova opened up, freeing herself from the competition that was pressing on her.
Like many other former Russians, the native of Moscow actively participates in international tournaments and achieves varying degrees of success.
In particular, she won an Olympic ticket to the Nebelhorn Trophy, which she could not do right away at the World Championships due to the coronavirus.
This was followed by two victories for Safonova at the Ice Star tournament and the Denis Ten memorial.
The 18-year-old figure skater had attempts to perform a triple axel in training, but so far this element has not entered her arsenal.
Without him, Safonova still remains in the cohort of athletes who cannot count on great success, which confirms her ninth place at the last European Championship.
Anastasia Shabotova (Ukraine)
In the world of figure skating, Anastasia Shabotova is known primarily for her loud statements that doping is used at the Khrustalny skating rink in Moscow.
The 13-year-old became the heroine of a major scandal in January 2019 and soon retracted her words, and a few months later she changed her sports citizenship from Russian to Ukrainian.
In the new team, Shabotova still managed to restart her career that had started so unsuccessfully.
Back in October 2020, she again attracted attention, but thanks to a more pleasant occasion - she performed a triple axel, becoming the 12th figure skater in history to do so at an official international tournament.
Shabotova, in pursuit of the jump, even overtook Kamila Valieva.
Due to her young age, Shabotova, even with an ultra-si element, does not yet compete with Russian figure skaters, but she will have the opportunity to gain experience at the Beijing Olympics, where she is also waiting for a team tournament.
Perhaps, of all the former Russians, she can be called the most promising, at least in terms of technical training.
Julia Shchetinina (Hungary)
Unlike all the skaters listed above, Yulia Shchetinina cannot be called a product of the Russian school.
As a child, she moved with her family from Nizhny Novgorod to Switzerland, and only there she began to engage in figure skating.
She started out as a single skater and then teamed up with Noah Scherer.
Together they performed at the World and European Championships, but were far from medals and dispersed two years later.
Shchetinina also tried to perform with another former Russian, Mikhail Akulov, but they were only enough for two seasons.
The current partner of the athlete is the Hungarian Mark Magyar, who had five different partners before Shchetinina.
For the sake of performing with him, the skater even changed her sports citizenship and began to represent a new country.
This decision paid off.
Their pair can be called quite stable.
Together they are skating for the third season and will finally be able to compete at the Beijing Olympics, which Hungarian couples have not achieved since 1956.