Absolute dominance. What to expect from leading Russian skaters in the upcoming season
At the first stage of the Grand Prix, which starts on the night of October 19 in Las Vegas, the attention of fans will traditionally be riveted to the highest gross earning discipline - single women's skating, which has become the territory of undivided leadership of Russian athletes
In recent years, competition in women's single skating has been incredible, but from the new season it will increase even more. Becaue the famous juniors from the group of Eteri Tutberidze, Aleksandra Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova and Alyona Kostornaya, have reached senior age. The young skaters are ready to compete with the leaders (Alina Zagitova, Yevgeniya Medvedeva, Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva, Rika Kihira, Satoko Miyahara), but what is there to “compete”? To come to the ice and take the highest places in all international tournaments. Each of them can do it.
Let's start with the second in the history of the Junior World Championships double champion
Aleksandra Trusova. Perhaps as many “trump cards” this 15-year-old girl has in her sleeve, no one in all of today's women's single skating ever had before. Technical - for sure. It is Trusova who is the first skater in the world who performed the quadruple Toeloop, as well as the most difficult of all the currently recognised quadruple jumps - the Lutz. She also holds the record for the number of quadruple jumps performed in one skating run: four. Also, Aleksandra is the first and so far the only one who managed to complete a quad jump in the second part of her program, and even in the cascade (with a triple Salchow through an Euler).
The last two achievements were submitted by her at the Japan Open team pre-season commercial tournament in Sapporo, which took place on October 5. Together with Trusova, the European team was composed of Olympic champion Alina Zagitova, as well as the legendary Spaniard Javier Fernandez and Latvian Denis Vasil'yev, who recently completed their careers. Traditionally, men in figure skating gain more points than women. Still, the programs are more complicated, and their emphasis on technology is a little larger. But not this time. Trusova received 160.53 points for her free program at those competitions, beating both Vasil'yev (146.65) and Fernandez (153.14).
And two weeks later, Aleksandra officially made her debut in senior competitions under the auspices of the International Skating Union (ISU) - at the Ondrei Nepela memorial in Bratislava. Excitement from the first start in his career by masters, it seems, absolutely did not affect this young lady. In her free program, she scored 163.78 points, in the sum of two appearances - 238.69. And thus broke two world records that previously belonged to Zagitova. What to expect from Trusova further? Probably only a quintuple jump. Everything else Aleksandra does with such ease you soon get accustomed to it.
This is all, of course, joking. Do you know how they joked last season? For example, letting Trusova go to the senior world championship for men, and she will be in the top five, because Aleksandra is technically so good. Now let's see: at last year's world championship in Japan, American Vincent Zhou, who finished third in the men's free program, scored 99.71 points for elements. Trusova in Bratislava - 98.34, but there she still had “only” three quadruple jumps. But on the other hand, the fourth Japanese Japanese Shoma Uno (89.90) Aleksandra would overrule without visible effort. And if the components of female single skaters were calculated according to the same formula as for single male skaters ...
Of course, Trusova has weaknesses. And one of them lies in the same place as her strength - in her technique. The skater's programs are simply too complicated to skate them out at the same high level all season. Therefore, it is likely that there will be errors. In addition, so far she has not been able to increase the level of skating and presentation of programs. However, if Alexandra minimizes the number of shortcomings, it will be very difficult to deal with her. Fans will be able to see Trusova at the Grand Prix stages in Canadian Kelowna (October 25–27) and in Moscow (November 15–17), as well as in the series finale, which will be held in Italian Turin from December 5 to 8. Of course, she remains to be selected, but there is no doubt that Aleksandra can do this.
Anna Shcherbakova is one of those who can compete with Trusova without reservations in the style of "Now, if she makes a mistake, then ...". At the junior level, she spent only one season, during which she managed to win two stages of the junior Grand Prix series. In addition, last year Shcherbakova, Trusova and Kostornaya made their debut in the senior Championships of Russia. And at this tournament Anna won a gold medal, beating not only her friends in the group, but also Zagitova, Medvyedeva, as well as future European champion Sof'ya Samodurova.
Like Trusova, Anna has a quadruple jump in her arsenal - the Lutz. Despite this, Shcherbakova is technically inferior to Trusova, but at the same time she has her own significant advantages. We can say that Shcherbakova is probably the most balanced skater of the Tutberidze group from yesterday's juniors. Her components are still quite high, but with the advent of the first significant results, they will definitely grow further. Musicality and grace, coupled with a powerful technical base, is an ideal combination, so that if she doesn't try to win all the competitions at once, then at least she'll be in the top three on each of them. The only thing that Shcherbakova really lacks is stability. However, with experience this will come.
Anna also began her first season with a victory. At a preseason tournament in Italy called “Lombardy Trophy” (September 12–16), the 15-year-old skater won gold, beating Tuktamysheva in a bitter struggle. When allocating Grand Prix starts, Shcherbakova got stages at which competition will be significant. In Las Vegas (October 18–20), she will again meet with Tuktamysheva, another Russian Stanislava Konstantinova, an American Brady Tennell, as well as Japanese Wakaba Higuchi and Kaori Sakamoto. At the competitions in Chinese Chongqing (November 8-10), her rivals will again be Tuktamysheva, and Samodurova and experienced Japanese women Satoko Miyahara and Marine Honda.
Speaking about the most balanced skater from the Tutberidze group, one cannot fail to mention
Alyona Kostornaya. Just a week ago, this 16-year-old athlete was not a contender for leadership in the eyes of fans. Yes, Kostornaya is skating at the level of Italian Carolina Costner, and maybe even higher. Yes, each skating run is a masterpiece by default, even if something goes wrong during it. Yes, the judges already love her and give her the "senior" components. But in her arsenal there were no elements of increased complexity (ultra-si), and without them it is very difficult to compete with Trusova and Shcherbakova.
And now these have appeared. And two at once even. At the tournament "Finland Trophy", which was held from October 11 to 13, in her free program Kostornaya jumped two triple Axels. One of them turned out to be under rotated but this did not stop her from gaining brilliant points for elements (85.91) and getting around Tuktamysheva in the fight for first place, who also had two triksels in her free program, both of which were clean. The total score for Kostornaya for both programs was 234.84, for Tuktamysheva, who became second, - 212.53. And this means that discounting Alyona is at least unreasonable.
She got the stages in French Grenoble (November 1–3) and Japanese Sapporo (November 22–24). Zagitova received exactly the same distribution. Also in France, Kostornaya will have to fight with Sakamoto and Higuchi, and in Japan - with the leader of the national team of the Land of the Rising Sun, Rika Kihira.
Zagitova vs Medvyedeva. Still relevant?
This confrontation has taken interest in figure skating to a new level. Now these two wonderful skaters have completely different tasks. Zagitova now is a synonym for success in women's single skating. Last season, she nevertheless attained a cherished goal - Gold in the World Championships, and now she has all asset from every international tournaments that exist in nature. The only skater who has achieved the same results is the incomparable Kim Yong-ah from South Korea.
Now Alina can afford to skate with pleasure and not having to chase after prize places. Her new programs aren't full of technical innovations - in fact, they aren't there at all. "Arbitrariness" fell by one point of base value compared to last season. Moreover, earlier the 17-year-old skater said that she does not plan to complicate her content this season.
However, she doesn't need it now. Alina already appeared in good physical shape at the September Open Test Skates and seemed to become even better by Japan Open. In Japan, she received 154.41 points for her programs - quite a bit less than for her winning free program from last year's World Championship. Judges adore her, and her programs, despite all the basics stuff, remain one of the most difficult in the world. So the highest marks are provided to her anyway.
It is unlikely that Zagitova will have problems with reaching the Grand Prix finals. The rest of the time, she can compete with a light heart, enjoying the work of a lifetime and basking in the love of fans. Alina is probably having the happiest time of her career.
For Medvyedeva, things are a little more complicated. After a silver medal at the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang and leaving Tutberidze for Canadian coach Brian Orser, the skater was faced with pressure from the fans against a backdrop of deteriorating results. Last season, she couldn't make it to the Grand Prix finals, and in the Russian national team for the World Championships she had to qualify through the final of the Russian Cup. At the World Championship in Sapporo, she won a bronze medal in an incredible competition, but the figure-skating community did not calm down over this.
The 19-year-old Medvyedeva had a difficult entry to this season. At the "Autumn Classic" tournament in Canadian Oakville, she became second while showing good points (217.43), but already at the next competition "Shanghai Trophy" (October 3-5), her result significantly deteriorated. In China, she was not at all well skating her free program, which resulted in extremely low scores for the level of two-time world and European champion (191.78). And although she won this tournament, this did not add optimism.
Obviously, at the moment, Medvyedeva has not yet managed to get back in shape. At the beginning of the season this is absolutely normal, over time, everything can change. But to compete for the highest places, any figure skater needs to complicate her programs. For example, earlier Medvyedeva announced that she was working on a quadruple Salchow, but in actual skating we are unlikely to see it soon. Reaching the Grand Prix finals under such conditions seems to be a very difficult task, especially considering that at both stages of the series Medvyedeva will compete with Trusova. It remains only to believe that Yevgeniya will be able to cope with all the problems that have befallen her.
Tuktamysheva will be amongst the leaders?
Last season, the athlete again broke into the elite of world figure skating. The pupil of Alexey Mishin restored her triple axel, which once helped her win the World and European Championships, and went hunting with it for Tutberidze's figure skaters. And from the rest of the world, too.
The hunt was glorious. Gold and Bronze of the Grand Prix stages, third place in the series finale and great prospects at the main starts of the season - European and World Championships. But then a something bad happened. Before the start of the December Championship of Russia in Saransk, Tuktamysheva was hospitalised with pneumonia. As a result - the skater did not get to Europe or the world.
But Yelizaveta did not despair. In the new season, the 22-year-old skater enters with an even more “difficult” technical base. In her free program, there are now two triple Axels, and one of them is in a cascade with a double Toeloop. The decision to complicate the program was brewing, especially considering that for getting into the final of the Grand Prix Tuktamysheva now has to fight not only with strong Japanese women, but also with Zagitova and Medvyedeva, but also with yesterday's juniors from the group of Tutberidze, who already beat her twice in the preseason. Of course, Yelizaveta will have a hard time, but if health problems pass her by, everything should work out. Especially if the judges do not underestimate her grades for the components.
-----
From:
https://tass.ru/sport/7010371