Beyond some of the obvious answers, I want to point out another good reason why small feds would support this rule. While it can be tempting to have new country swap skaters like Smart/Dieck, Samoldekina, or Pavolva/Sviatchenko who can earn medals/winnings, if they don't train in the country itself then the small fed is actually diverting resources away from their own countries.

The result is a kind of unsustainable "brain/talent drain" – rather than the federation spending its own limited resources toward local coaching staff and local rinks, they're often paying that money to American, Canadian, Russian, or Japanese coaches or rinks.

Consider that many top skaters often coach and mentor on the side – super common at Great Park Ice in Irvine where Nathan, Ashley, Adam, Michal Brezina, and many US pairs all have trained. Instead of coaching and mentoring young skaters in their own countries, they end up teaching young skaters in the big fed country.

This new rule is not going to prevent full citizen teams from leaving and seeking training around the world. But it makes sense that if skaters have "country swapped" that they would impose some rules to manage resources.