Alena Kostornaya's opinion on test skates:
https://tass.ru/opinions/15877969
The new season of Russian figure skating started this weekend with test skates at Megasport. If someone had told me six months ago that I would be watching them as a spectator, I would probably have laughed - "well, not me." I would have known then that in the summer I would have an operation, after which I would have to recover for at least another six months, that hospital life would become commonplace for me, and doctors would become almost family people. And to them for their work, by the way, many thanks.
Nothing can be done, as they say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. And of course, yes, I was offended that I was not on the ice. But since it happened, I'm not going to give up and stop. So, I will do what I can. For a long time I entertained myself with drawing - I'm pretty good at it, by the way. But this is not enough for me, so I decided to learn a new profession, and the choice fell on journalism. It was always interesting to be on the other side of the ribbon in the mixed zone, to ask your question to those with whom you recently competed on the same ice. And somewhere to show and tell people about figure skating from an unusual angle.
You may be wondering why TASS. Everything is simple here - firstly, this is the name. TASS is an agency with a long history, and these four letters are known all over the world. I myself have given interviews to this agency more than once. Secondly, if you start to learn, then you need to do it, as I think, just like that. So that in the future, no matter what field of journalism I choose, and I consider this option quite seriously, I had a really serious school behind me. I am sure that here they will help me, teach, support. And I was also very surprised to learn that TASS, it turns out, has journalists who write and shoot for the agency even from space, from the International Space Station.
And now I will try to pass the first exam, talking about my emotions after what I saw in Megasport. It would be appropriate to say "do not judge strictly", but no - judge, I'm used to strict refereeing. Due to the fact that I myself compete in single skating, I will focus on this discipline. And I would like to start, oddly enough, with the men. Although I understand that my analysis of the female skating may cause more interest.
As many as 12 participants, but I would stop at a few. For me, the discovery was what Yevgeny Semenenko did on ice in the free skate on Sunday. If someone does not immediately remember him, then this is a guy who hit his head on the ice on the show so hard this spring that everyone was watching his health then. I also performed in that show in St. Petersburg, and everything that happened then really scared everyone. That is why I am doubly happy for Zhenya - he annealed it so that sometimes I wanted to ask: "Zhenya, is it really you?" Yes, even if the program has not been work out in yet, even if it is the beginning of the season, but he just fired the audience. My first thought was: "My God, this is a masterpiece." A man for the offseason pumped all his skills.
Mark Kondratyuk. And again, his costume in the short program reminded me of Nathan Chen. But in the free skate, he was in a completely different image, and here, unfortunately, due to errors, it was not possible to reveal this. I think this can be explained by the fact that now is the very beginning of the season. I'm sure we'll still be happy for him. As for the new programs of Mikhail Kolyada, I have not yet got it. Let me be criticized for subjectivity, but I loved his early programs for their lightness, smile and a bunch of positive emotions that he gave to his fans. Perhaps because the skating of Javier Fernandez has always been close to me. But here to each his own.
Arthur Danielyan surprised me in a good way. Most recently, he changed his coach - before we skated in the same group with Elena Germanovna Buyanova, and now Artur works in St. Petersburg. Artur has done a lot during this time - and programs with coaches have been set up, and he even managed to skate them. Yes, there is still a lot of work, but if a person is gaining momentum so quickly, does it mean that he is still charged for the result? At this pace, he can do a lot this season. I believe that he has not yet revealed his full potential. Just a little more confidence in the results of your work and in yourself.
And in fact, Makar Ignatov showed the cleanest performance on Sunday. And I would like to wish him that the way he skated served him as a good start for the whole season. And at least - do not lower the level.
In the performance of the girls, of course, a lot of attention was paid to the performance of Kamila Valieva, who devoted her free program to what happened to her at the Olympics. As for the very idea of the program, I leave this question out of the brackets, because it caused me rather conflicting feelings. And I would not like to talk about this topic for a long time, if only because I myself am an active athlete. I can only say that this skating, of course, evoked emotions. As for the program itself, in terms of music, it had an interesting start, this is a good find, as well as an unusual ending. Kamila skated mentally, subtly, loudly. But if you compare all of her programs, starting with "The Girl on the Ball", they are in a similar style. In them, first of all, Kamila, then music. I would like to see her new.
I really liked the short program of Sofia Muravyova, despite the mistake on the triple axel. But she glided, showed, skated, interpreted her program. I also liked Liza Tuktamysheva with her new free program in the form of a blind girl, although at the end there was not enough skating power. But she was sick, so this is understandable, this program has a lot of potential, I'm sure. Yes, she is unusual, yes, everyone is used to the incendiary Lisa, and it really suited her.
I was very upset for Sofa Samodelkina - such a cool quad loop turned out at the warm-up, but it didn’t work out in skating. Sonya Akatieva has kept her short program from last year - a fluffy, thin, sonorous, interesting free skate, and in general, for her age, the image is excellent. Adelia Petrosyan also had a very good junior performance.
And yet, following the results of the skatings, I saw the same athletes, but with new programs. There were interesting ideas, finds, but many after injuries, they are still recovering. In the end, these are just test skates, and they are primarily for the athletes to show their work in the off-season, to outline their programs, it was a test of themselves at the beginning of the season. So, anyway, it was before. Now it's still more like a competition.
There are a lot of competitions this season, and our federation managed to make them even more significant. I hope that I can still perform in some of them. And of course, it would be interesting for me to perform in the show programs tournament. It seems to me that this is primarily a competition of "creatives", and this is interesting. By the way, the tournament has no name yet and, as I heard, proposals are accepted. I urge the fans to be a little creative. The only thing that is not very clear to me yet is refereeing. Because if the victory will be awarded only by the opinion of the audience, there is a nuance. After all, some athletes have more fans than others. This means that an athlete whose fan base is obviously smaller loses his chances. Our fans are very devoted, and that's great. But this may not play into the hands of the objectivity of the assessment.
Well, the test skates are over, the season begins. And for now, I can only say that the next ones will not pass without me. I believe that. And I want to perform on them in combat mode. The doctors said you can. So I can
Glad to see Ignatov, Danielian, Kolyada, Mozalev and Aliev all reaching for the right stuff.
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With the exception of Alexei, who made me a bit shy...
