Slovakia’s best alpine skier wants to ditch Slovakia and represent Russia

After turning down an offer from Russia last year, Slovakia's best alpine skier Adam Žampa is determined to switch citizenship and compete for another country at a time when strife in Slovak professional skiing has come to a head. This was reported in the Hospodárske Noviny daily on Tuesday. Žampa's father confirmed this on Monday, adding that the successful skier has again been offered the opportunity to represent Russia. "The [skiing] federation there is able to pay for and provide everything that a professional skier needs", said the skier's father, Tomáš Žampa. The reasons for Žampa's considerations lie in what the family describe as broken promises in regards to funding by the Slovak Skiing Association and conflicts at the top. The change being pondered by the 24 year old Žampa, who made a splash at last year's Winter Olympics in Sochi by finishing fifth in the super combined race and sixth in the slalom race. The skier is the first Slovak athlete to threaten to change citizenship unless the funding of his career is improved, with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico scheduled to meet with Žampa's father this week to discuss the issue.