Lithuania‘s ice dancing pair will not represent the country at Beijing Winter Olympics after Alisson Reed, partner of Saulius Ambrulevičius, was denied Lithuanian citizenship for a second time.
“Last week, we received a reply about my partner Allison’s new application for Lithuanian citizenship. Unfortunately, it was again negative. As a result, and with great regret, the opportunity to represent Lithuania at the forthcoming Olympic Games in Beijing has closed,” Ambrulevičius wrote on Facebook.
Ambrulevičius and Reed, who is a US national, represented Lithuania in last year's World Ice Skating Championship and finished 15th, securing a ticket to the Winter Olympics.
To be able to go to Beijing in February, Reed applied for Lithuanian citizenship, but the President's Office rejected the first application. The ice dancer applied for a second time but again unsuccessfully.
Read more: Lithuania's ice dancing hopefuls Ambrulevičius and Reed: 'this year has been the hardest mentally'
Reed and Ambrulevičius are ranked 13th in the world rankings. Paulina Ramanauskaitė and Deividas Kizala should replace them representing Lithuania at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
According to Ambrulevičius, the pair’s future after Reed has been denied Lithuanian citizenship is uncertain.
“We will continue dancing for now. […] We will definitely finish this season and then, we’ll see,” he told LRT.lt.
Reed and Ambrulevičius will compete in the European Figure Skating Championship which starts on January 10 in Tallinn, Estonia.
In 2013, the then president Dalia Grybauskaitė granted Lithuania's citizenship to American ice dancer Izabella Tobias so she could compete in the 2014 Sochi Olympics with her Lithuanian partner Deividas Stagniūnas.
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