1984
On the Ice Parquet
(the article published in Ukrainian 'Sportyvna Hazeta' on November 24, 1984)
Review
AS FAR BACK AS JUNE, our best figure skaters, seeing off the Olympic season, participated in a major exhibition tour of Australia. In August-September, they already demonstrated new programs at the international "Elbe-Alps Cup" tournament, which takes place in two stages in France and West Germany, and in a series of all-Union tournaments.
The calendar for the masters of the winged skate is very dense. In October, competitions were held in Austria, England, and Canada; in November, the open championship of Moscow and traditional international tournaments in Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Yugoslavia, Japan, and Holland. A similar picture has been observed for more than a year. But previously, the strongest often avoided autumn starts, polishing innovations in the silence of training halls, appearing before the eyes of judges and spectators only in December. Now the situation has changed. Practically all contenders for medals in the European and world championships (among seniors and juniors) already have 2-3 performances with a full program under their belts, although they avoided head-to-head duels with main competitors.
There are several reasons for such a reorientation toward autumn. After the completion of the last Olympic cycle, a large group of recognized leaders left the ice. In the men's category, it's the American S. Hamilton and N. Schramm from West Germany; in the women's, Elena Vodorezova (who, by the way, got married), Americans E. Zayak and R. Sumners. Former world champions in pair skating S. Baess and T. Thierbach (GDR) hung up their skates, and English ice dancers J. Torvill and C. Dean moved to a professional troupe.
Thus, there are many vacancies on Olympus. Since no clear favorites are observed, numerous contenders are in a hurry to declare themselves as early as possible with a victory in a prestigious international competition, and most importantly—to please the judges. In figure skating, where scores are quite subjective, this is very important.
There are grounds for "autumn fever" for those who are only taking their first steps on the international arena. It is still difficult for them to break into their national teams. Therefore, after the New Year, when the main events begin, they will have no opportunities to perform at the highest level and gain authority for the future. That is why autumn tournaments of various kinds have become so popular. They are not of a qualifying nature, but they allow skaters to "feel" the ice, compare their own programs with the compositions of opponents, and, if necessary, make adjustments to one element or another.
As is known, members of the USSR national team are prepared in specialized groups of "Trud" (senior coach—Tatyana Tarasova), "Spartak" (Natalia Dubova), "Dynamo" (Elena Tchaikovskaia), CSKA (Stanislav Zhuk and Lyudmila Pakhomova), and in the Leningrad trade union center (Tatyana and Igor Moskvin). We will see them all together for the first time in December, when the prizes of the "Moscow News" newspaper will be contested. These competitions, as well as the USSR senior championship opening on January 7 in Dnipropetrovsk, will already have a qualifying character.
Autumn starts showed that the selectors of the USSR national team will face problems of a somewhat unusual nature: how to choose the three most stable and promising from five or six approximately equal pairs or soloists.
In pair skating, for trips to Sweden (European Championship) and Japan (World Championship), the Leningrad spouses Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev, their compatriots Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov, Moscow Spartak members Elena Bechke and Valery Kornienko, experienced Veronika Pershina and Marat Akbarov (who now train in "Dynamo" with Irina Rodnina), as well as other students of Rodnina—Dnipropetrovsk's Inna Bekker and Sergei Likhansky, who just won the all-Union "Dynamo" championship in Kyiv—are competing.
Among women, leadership is maintained by Moscow's Kira Ivanova and Anna Kondrashova. Both hold places in the world's top five. But the programs of Anna Antonova from Kharkiv and Natalia Lebedeva from Sverdlovsk are no less complex; they only lack stability in performing "ultra-c" elements.
Muscovites Vladimir Kotin and Alexander Fadeev, Kharkiv's Vitaly Egorov, and Odesa's Viktor Petrenko are the shock force of the men's team.
There are many bright, distinct duets with solid international authority among the ice dancers. Let's name at least Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin, Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, medalists of the Sarajevo Olympics. The former prepared a free dance to the music of Bizet-Shchedrin's "Carmen" for the new season. And Marina and Sergei, who got married in the summer, will show a composition based on the themes of the most popular ice dancers of the past. Original, sometimes with risky elements, programs will be demonstrated by Elena Batanova and Alexei Soloviev, Natalia Annenko and Genrikh Sretenski, Maya Usova and Alexander Zhulin, Elena Krykanova and Evgeni Platov. It is characteristic that N. Dubova's students from Odesa, Krykanova and Platov, by age will still compete at the World Junior Championship in Colorado Springs (USA). Moreover, they are going there not as newcomers, but to defend the champion title won last year in Japan.
Young talents will gather in Colorado Springs in mid-December. It is pleasant that the Soviet national team will include many of our compatriots. This became clear after the qualifying starts in Tallinn, where, in addition to the already mentioned Krykanova and Platov, Kyiv's Natalia Gorbenko, Odesa's Yuri Tsimbalyuk, and Kharkiv's Mikhail Shmerkin performed excellently.
G. KUZMIN.
