Pairs of different countries gel well

Gangneung (South Korea), Feb. 18: There’s a Russian skating for Australia who at first thought she was headed to Austria.

Two Americans are ice dancing for host South Korea. Another American is competing for Brazil. Four members of the Israeli team are not natives.

The German pair that won the gold medal has a woman, Aliona Savchenko, from Ukraine, and a man, Bruno Massot, from France.

And get this: a Brit and an Aussie are entered in ice dance representing the Russians, who once ruled that discipline.

Some three dozen skaters in the Pyeongchang Games are performing for nations in which they were not born.

“Nine years ago, I retired from figure skating,” says Israel’s Alexei Bychenko, who previously represented his homeland, Ukraine. “After Vancouver (Olympics in 2010, which he did not qualify for), I took one year break, and then my coach called me and asked if I wanted to skate in an Olympics? I couldn’t do it for Ukraine, but we talked about my options and that I have a Jewish family. Bychenko contacted the Israeli federation — the country has made great strides in the sport — and was told it was doable. He began to train there, got his citizenship and wound up 11th in the men’s event.

His “countrymen,” Adel Tankova and Ronald Zilberberg, will ice dance this week. She is from Ukraine and has Jewish roots, too.

Spain’s Sara Hurtado had success with a previous ice dance partner. When they split, like many ice dancers of the last few decades, she found a new partner in Russia, Kirill Khaliavin.

Such pairings often fail because the level of performance doesn’t match for each skater. Yet it worked immediately for them.

“We had the same vision about achieving things. And we bonded more as a team because of that than because of the technical (moves). We shared a mindset,” Hurtado said.

Khaliavin, one of four Russians skating for another nation in these Olympics, says it’s tough to move up as an ice dancer in Russia.

“Then I knew my route.”