On Thin Ice: Soft Power, Figure Skating, and the Post-Soviet Russian State

Abstract

Since its introduction to the Olympic programme in 1908, figure skating has become a headlining event of the Winter Olympics, capturing the attention of the world by way of memorable programs, costumes, and storylines. In Post-Soviet Russia, we have seen the utilization of sport in general as an instrument of soft power and messaging both on the domestic and international stage. Figure skating has become a particularly salient example in the ways in which an athlete can become a symbol of the state and its associated policies. This paper considers the legacies of politicization of the modern Olympics and the role of the athlete as national policy messenger or personification of national concerns. It also weaves a detailed narrative of post-Soviet Russia’s intersection of Olympic and global competitive figure skating, the state-sponsored training regime, and Vladimir Putin’s leadership, chronicling the sport’s successes and failures within Russia from the fall of the Soviet Union to Russia’s hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the Kamila Valieva doping scandal, and the subsequent invasion of Ukraine.