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On Friday in Kazan the fourth and most powerful in terms of composition of all those who passed the stage of the Junior Grand Series ended -with Russia in figure skating. Such a scattering of the brightest young stars of this sport on one ice has not been seen for a very long time. And what is noteworthy is not only among girls, as we are accustomed to, but also among boys.
It’s hard to argue with the fact that women have become the driving force of figure skating in Russia in recent years. Or, more precisely, girls – all of our top athletes, who collected the main titles on the world stage before Russian figure skaters were excommunicated from it, did this in their teens. And some, like Alina Zagitova at the 2018 Olympics, even in childhood – at the time of her victory at the Games in Pyeongchang she was only 15 years old.
Largely due to the fact that in women's single skating, Russian schoolgirls, not even the last year of education, began to rule the show, the International Skating Union (ISU) in the summer of 2022 decided to gradually increase the age limit to 17 years. According to officials, this should lead to longer careers for figure skaters, many of whom, having overcome the stage of maturation of the body, for purely physiological reasons can no longer compete with those who are still at pre-pubescent age, and leave the big sport.
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The Kazan stage of the Russian Grand Prix among juniors became a clear illustration of the fact that this problem really exists. Two figure skaters performed here who, even last season, performed ultra-c elements quite consistently – Sofia Titova from the Plushenko's Angels school and Maria Gordeeva from CSKA.
Now neither one nor the other can boast of even stable triples. Last season, Plushenko praised Titova for her fighting character; she performed jumps of four and three and a half turns. In Kazan in November 2023 she is only tenth. Ultra-si elements are zero.
True, Sophia has noticeably improved in presenting programs – just like Gordeeva. It’s interesting to watch both girls skating – these are no longer automatic movements, but a meaningful interpretation of the music. But Maria has the same problem. And she regularly performed quadruples a year ago.
Now Sergei Davydov's student is just trying to make them – but it is obvious that there is no safety margin. Whether she will be able to gain it again, at least for the level of performance of stable triples, is a big question. Will female athletes have the patience to continue their careers is no less a question.
In a situation where young figure skaters do not need to accelerate their mastery of quadruple jumps by the age of 15, perhaps a tactic called “the slower you go, the further you will go,” will be more effective. And we also saw confirmation that it works at the last stage of the Russian Grand Prix among juniors. Victoria Morozova does not swing at ultra-C, does not engage fifth gear immediately after first, but relies on confident and meaningful skating with the most complete transfer of artistic intent. As a result, after gold in Omsk, she got silver in Kazan.
And her words “I’ll do a quadruple loop” are not even very believable. And for what? The figure skater receives high bonuses for triple jumps and cascades of them, looks interesting on the ice – somewhat reminiscent of the best Anna Pogorilaya. The judges note this – Morozova’s scores for components in Kazan are confidently second only to the champion, whom we’ll talk about later.
If you don’t overload your changing body now and don’t torture it with dozens of quadruple jumps at every training session, you’ll probably have more chances to reach adult skating without losing anything along the way. And the fact that ultra-si can, if necessary, be mastered and consistently performed even after childhood, was proven by Elizaveta Tuktamysheva.
The winner of the junior stage of the Grand Prix in Kazan was Margarita Bazylyuk, the new star of the Eteri Tutberidze group. She was 30 points ahead of Morozova, and this is not surprising – Rita performed two quadruple jumps out of three planned in her free program and added a triple Axel to this. It is impossible not to admire its highest technical level – and there is no desire to resist this impulse. Absolutely everyone, including her rivals, applauded Bazylyuk’s performance in Kazan.
But there is one “but”. Margarita is 12 years old and still just a child. Of course, talented and brilliantly trained, but a child. Russia does not seem to be going to introduce its own age limit, and according to ISU rules, Bazylyuk will have to wait another five years before entering adult competitions. Will the strategy of reaching the level of overwhelming technical complexity so early turn out to be a winning strategy? I think the issue is debatable. And the answer to it will depend on many factors.
By the way, it is quite obvious that the figure skater herself is thinking about this question. I asked Rita a question after her victory in Kazan – would she, in theory, want to compete with Kamila Valieva? And he received in response a slightly confusing statement of fact: “Camila is already an adult, but I still jump and hope that I will jump.”
To formulate it a little more clearly, Bazylyuk realizes that it is much easier for her, the little girl, to perform ultra-c jumps than Valieva, who has finally turned into a stately beauty, so she no longer wants to compete with the Olympic champion, and not to lose her technique as she grows up.
Hanyu, apparently, came to mind not by chance – once he also interpreted this mostly female theme. However, he is not the only one – among the men remembered in this role were also Daisuke Takahashi and Mark Kondratyuk. But Fedotov is not a husband yet, but a boy – if you want, consider this statement super-bold and subjective, “Swan” is the best.
Arseny turned 14 at the end of September. In the free program, he cleanly performed three quadruple jumps. And the hope that he will be able to overcome adolescence without loss – and guys, of course, also have this problem, albeit not as pronounced as girls – is fueled by the fact that he is competing with the same technical, artistic or, more simply put, cool guys.
Which in the same way swing at quadruples of all stripes. Ivan Ramzenkov, Vadim Voronov, Nikolay Kolesnikov, Lev Lazarev – here I listed them in the order of their places at the Russian Junior Grand Prix in Kazan, but, in fact, they are all good. And the list of talented young Russian figure skaters is not limited to those who are mentioned here.
Unfortunately, now the main problem of preserving this crazy potential, which is visible in the young generation of our figure skating with the naked eye, seems to be not even the future the growing up of this is still just kids, and the removal of Russian figure skaters from performing on the international stage.
If this whole Kazan “gang” came out right now to compete with foreign peers, they would crush them to smithereens. Alas, ISU officials also understand this – and use the cover of politics to arrange a quiet life for themselves. What can we say to our guys to keep them motivated? Nothing – just act. The Russian Figure Skating Federation is trying its best to do this – but we can only believe in the best
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