The current winter season for Soviet figure skaters turned out to be unusually stormy, full of unexpected turns and bright events. It is enough to recall the struggle at the recent European Championships in Dortmund (FRG), where the USSR team won five medals, including gold, three silver and bronze.
This time, the judges did not hesitate to light up the scoreboard with 5.8-5.9 points for the performances of our leaders Natalia Bestemyanova and Andrey Bukin, Olga Volozhinskaya and Alexander Svinin in ice dancing, and Alexander Fadeev in single skating. Let's pay tribute to the courage of Fadeev, who did not lose heart after an unfortunate mistake in the "school", where he was ninth, and still managed to win a silver medal in free skating and a bronze medal in the all-around. For the first time in women's skating, Elena Vodorezova was awarded a silver medal, for the first time, Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev received "silver" in pair skating, for the first time, Vladimir Kotin took third place in the free program. In short, our team got a "second wind" in the pre-Olympic season.
And as in previous years, there are again many letters in the editorial mail dedicated to figure skating. In today's dialogue, where questions on behalf of readers are asked by
our correspondent A. SHELUKHIN, the Olympic champion, six-time world and European champion, state trainer of the USSR Sports Committee Alexander GORSHKOV is taking part.
Muscovite T. Pokrovskaya, who has been watching figure skating competitions since 1967, writes that in the days of such "stars" as Peggy Fleming (USA), Emmerich Danzer (Austria), the execution of programs was very stable, and falls on the ice seemed a rarity. Now, however, figure skaters are storming the "ultra-c" elements in both singles and pairs skating, perform 3.5-turn jumps, but at the same time, mistakes have become more frequent. Maybe there is a limit to the growth of technical skill in figure skating?
GORSHKOV: In my opinion, the use of "ultra-c" elements in modern programs is a completely natural phenomenon. Figure skating has reached a new level in its development, both technically and aesthetically. Now no one is surprised by skillfully executed triple jumps. Both experts and many spectators want to see not single jumps, but combinations, cascades of complex elements, and at high speed, with a large amplitude. By the way, the physical and technical capabilities of the current generation of masters are much broader and richer than those of athletes of past decades. The process of forming a master has accelerated significantly thanks to the achievements of science and coaching art. And we often see how literally in 3-4 years a young figure skater in our schools masters a modern complex program with triple jumps, with cascades of elements.
It is characteristic that at the European Championship in Dortmund the most complex compositions were performed by A. Fadeev, V. Kotin (USSR), N. Schramm (FRG), J. Sabovcik (Czechoslovakia). But these athletes are mostly 19-20 years old, they are, as they say, on the threshold of a long journey. And it seems that in the near future we will see programs that are even more saturated with complex elements, and maximally expressive, spectacular ...
Leningrader S. Shumilov, noting the latest achievements of the Soviet team, emphasizes that in pair skating, in his opinion, there is an underestimation of young duets that already have an original style. In particular, he names such pairs as E. Valova and O. Vasiliev, L. Selezneva and O. Makarov, N. Chervotkina and V. Teslya. Perhaps we should trust more often the representatives of the youth wave, who can dare at competitions of any rank?
GORSHKOV: Of course, the unexpected success of debutants Valova and Vasiliev at the European Championship is a serious argument in favor of those who rely on young skaters full of passion and audacity. But I cannot agree with the statement that this season is due to underestimation of young original pairs. Valova and Vasiliev have been part of the USSR national team for two years already, and in the fall of 1982 they won an international tournament in the USA. And, apparently, they would have fought for the medals at the 1983 national championship if not for Vasiliev's injury.
I would like to point out that we should in no way ignore the sporting principle of selection in the most important starts. For example, at the national championship, by unanimous decision of the judges, third place was taken by junior world champions M. Avstriyskaya and Yu. Kvashnin, who outpaced the strong pair L. Selezneva and O. Makarov. By the way, Avstriyskaya and Kvashnin – typical representatives of the youth wave in pair skating – left the most favorable impression at the European Championships.
An interesting detail: compared to the 1980 Olympic season, our team has been renewed by three quarters; in the current season alone, seven more debutants have joined it, and none of them finished lower than fifth. And this influx of reserves has strengthened the team's power.
And one more thing. The experience of many years has shown that the most optimal composition of any national team involves a combination of experienced masters, virtuosos of figure skating, and daring youth. It is this combination that helps to gain maturity faster. By the way, in his letter, Shumilov calls on the USSR champion Elena Vodorezova to help her young comrades more. But first, let's note that Vodorezova herself is not yet 20 years old, and besides, this unusually goal-oriented athlete has the most beneficial influence on her teammates. The best example is the rapid progress in technique of 19-year-old Fadeev, who has been training next to Elena for two years.
I. Naumov (Stavropol) asks how to decipher the currently very fashionable term "balanced program" in figure skating.
GORSHKOV: There are heated debates among specialists about a balanced program. And this is no accident. The term "balanced program" was first used two years ago when interpreting the new rules in pair skating. It was emphasized that in this case we are talking about the need to provide the entire arsenal of various elements in the composition - from jumps and spins to lifts and death spirals.
In a broader sense, a balanced program implies a bright artistic and choreographic solution to the composition with very high technical skill and beautiful, polished gliding.
Indeed, the events of the last two years convince us that it is impossible to win by highlighting only one aspect of mastery, say, only powerful complex jumps or only perfect plasticity, gesticulation. The role of sporting factors has increased - complexity, speed, amplitude of elements, but new technical capabilities have allowed figure skaters to master even more daring compositions in concept. This is precisely where we should see the secret of success of modern programs performed, for example, by Alexander Fadeev, Vladimir Kotin.
And even in ice dancing, the connection between virtuoso technique and rich plasticity is clearly visible - this was most clearly demonstrated in their program by the new European champions Bestemianova and Bukin ...
Readers E. Bychkova (Syzran), A. Yakovlev (Tambov region), A. Agadjanidze (Kyiv), I. Melnik (Chernigov), D. Panfilova (Chelyabinsk), O. Stekolnikova (Leningrad) and others are interested in the fate of our famous figure skating masters, who recently competed as part of the national team. We are talking about former world champions I. Moiseeva and A. Minenkov, former world champions M. Cherkasova and S. Shakhrai, former European champion I. Bobrin, and the silver pair of the world championship M. Pestova and S. Leonovich.
GORSHKOV: First of all, touching on the preparation of the USSR champions Marina Pestova and Stanislav Leonovich, I will note that due to the partner's injury, this duet began training later than all their rivals. Nevertheless, Pestova found the strength and will to start at the USSR championship together with her partner Leonovich. The skaters passed the test in Chelyabinsk with honor, winning gold medals. However, the injury made itself known on the eve of the European Championship, and the duo stayed home.
Now, before the starts in Helsinki, Pestova and Leonovich are in excellent shape, and we have the right to count on their successful performance at the World Championship.
A few words about Igor Bobrin, who, in my opinion, did a lot for the prestige of our figure skating school, created a unique style in his programs-performances. Why was the All-Union Coaching Council forced to decide not to include Bobrin in the team at the European Championship? The fact is that after the 1980 Winter Olympics, men's single skating made a vigorous leap forward: the requirements for the complexity of compositions, for the quality of execution of elements of the highest difficulty increased, and competition increased. In particular, the tone is now set by a whole group of figure skaters who can do 3.5-turn jumps and even 4-turn jumps, cascades with triple jumps. But this season, Bobrin's programs did not meet the new requirements. And it would be wrong for the ex-European champion to perform after failures at tournaments in Holland, Moscow, Chelyabinsk, considering that in a number of skill components he was already inferior to his rivals.
The reason for the absence of Irina Moiseeva and Andrey Minenkov from the team is one thing: for health reasons they could not participate in a series of important qualifying tournaments.
As is known, the paths of Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakhrai diverged after the 1981 season. Later, in the fall, there was an attempt to create a new duet consisting of Tatyana Shalimova and Sergei Shakhrai, but injuries prevented them from training. After graduating from the Institute of Physical Education, Shakhrai began coaching at the Dynamo school in the capital. Cherkassova is studying at the Institute of Physical Education, also preparing for a career in coaching.
Readers I. Nesmiyanov (Klaipeda), P. Simonov (Saratov), T. Leonova (Ulan-Ude) and others touch upon the choice of music, the style of the compositions and at the same time emphasize that the success of N. Bestemyanova and A. Bukin was to a certain extent due to the originality of the music, the appeal to folk melodies. What do you think about the trends in the choice of music?
GORSHKOV: When I was performing with Lyudmila Pakhomova, we, together with our coach Elena Tchaikovskaya, prepared a new free composition for the season almost every year. The desire to update the musical repertoire was a condition for real creative work for us. We knew that if we allowed ourselves a break for even one season, we would lose the initiative. And this should not be allowed in figure skating!
In this regard, Bestemianova and Bukin are on the right track - each season they give their viewers programs that are completely different from the previous ones.
I would like to note that reducing the search to only one task - to surprise, would mean a one-sided understanding of creative problems. And, fortunately, our new champions are far from such an approach to the formation of new programs. In the foreground of our mentors, such as the honored coaches of the USSR T. Tarasova, E. Tchaikovskaya, is the individuality of the performers. This season we have received new convincing evidence of how one can subtly and gracefully emphasize the unique style of figure skaters by making a very precise choice of music. We are talking about the free compositions of N. Bestemianova and A. Bukin, O. Volozhinskaya and A. Svinin, V. Kotin. In this case, both folk melodies and fragments from classical works by Russian and foreign composers were masterfully used.
Undoubtedly, the creative discovery was the appeal to modern jazz rhythms in the compositions of our national champion A. Fadeev. Here the figure skater was greatly assisted by the most experienced masters of variety dancing. Incidentally, in the program of the European champion N. Schramm (FRG), the traditions of first-class variety dancing were used with great skill.
But it would be wrong to conclude that variety art takes precedence over the traditions of ballet art in the field of music. Today the trend is as follows: the choice of music is determined by the creative image, the individual psychology of the athlete.
