Canberra skier Laura Peel was set to compete in Russia this week, but the three-time Olympian is now in a race to relocate after Vladimir Putin declared war on the Ukraine.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Peel and some of her Australian teammates were expected to compete in one of the first events since the Beijing Olympic Games.
Fellow aerial skiers Danielle Scott and Gabi Ash joined Peel in Yaroslavl to continue their 2021-22 season at the next World Cup event before war was declared, and the group fled the country on Friday.
Peel has spoken to her family in Canberra, and will likely relocate to Germany.
The FIS event, situated some 250 kilometres from Russia's capital Moscow, will go ahead but Peel, Scott and Ash will not be there. And other international athletes are thought to be following, despite their discipline's next World Cup event set for March 5 in Moscow.
The Freestyle Federation of Russia confirmed in a statement on Thursday the national teams of Australia, Switzerland, Germany and Great Britain had decided not to take part in the February 26-27 event.
MORE IN CANBERRA SPORT:
"Decision has been made to leave Russia and not compete in the final World Cups," Scott tweeted on Thursday.
"I can't believe this is happening ... in the uniquely unifying power of sport, I wished so badly for this situation to be different."
It remains unclear how many Australian athletes are competing in the region, with ski cross also affected by a World Cup event in Russia's Sunny Valley and a snowboarding parallel slalom Cup event in Moscow also canned this week. Whilst next month ski jumping's HS37 (Nizhny Tagil), and cross-country events (Tyumen) in the country will also be affected.
The Ukraine's National Championships for freestyle ski and snowboard cross were also due to get under way in Bukovel this week, before the event was cancelled.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram