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European champion in single skating Alena Kostornaya continues to make her way in the pairs event in a duet with her husband Georgy Kunitsa . At the Russian Grand Prix in Moscow they took fifth place and jumped into the series finals. But Sport reminds us that in single skating Alena would still look no worse than many.
The harsh reality of competitions with the participation of Alena Kostornaya is that everyone goes on the ice, but only her is discussed. Well, or not only, but definitely almost more than everyone else, with the possible exception of a couple of figure skaters. Previously, this effect affected only women’s singles, but now pairs suffer, where Olympic champions, world and European champions, world record holders skate, but people are glued to the screens at the first-level todes from Kostornaya and Kunitsa and catch their every word after not yet the most outstanding performances. Alena, are you satisfied?!
On the other hand, if you look at the situation objectively, pair skating needs to pray for Alena. The anomaly of the species is that you can bring a whole crowd of simply amazing greenhouses onto the ice and push their heads together, but this will not cause spectator excitement on a planetary scale. Actually, this is exactly what happens at the Russian Grand Prix.
Unlike other disciplines, pair skating has not suffered any losses since last season – Alexandra Boykova/Dmitry Kozlovsky, Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Gallyamov, Yasmina Kadyrova/Valery Kolesov, and many other strong pairs are in the ranks, each of which is capable of winning The world championship is right now. There are cool programs and ultra-si, but their significance in the eyes of the neutral public is still insignificant. It’s as if pair skating has not benefited from the boom in the popularity of figure skating – rare rays of glory reach them tangentially, but this is still not the same.
And then an “Angel” comes down to them, and, as you understand, not in a metaphorical sense. And pair skating instantly gained not nerve or intrigue – that’s all right – but media appeal. No, seriously, who else is capable of attracting such wide attention to the first warm-up of couples?
After two stages of the Grand Prix, we can say that the pairing of Alena and Georgy is a selection oxymoron atypical for our sport. She is not an uncomplaining, dutiful girl who is ready for anything, and he is not a two-meter-tall crane whose functionality is “hold tight, throw further.” She has not divided her personality in two and is unlikely to ever be able to, and he almost certainly does not feel like he is the master of the situation, which is an incredible rarity for paired species, where the value of partners of any class is prohibitively inflated.
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In general, it’s amazing how calmly Georgy accepted the role of second violin. Of the two of them, he has much more experience in pairs, but it is he who, as if against the background of Alena, is constantly forced to catch up and match. Next to the best skater of the generation (and this is at least), he is obliged to ride and jump no worse, control the paired elements and not disintegrate into molecules under the pressure of the all-consuming charisma of his partner – and somehow he succeeds. Fans constantly say how lucky Georgiy is with Alena, but in fact it would be more correct to say that she was no less lucky with him. There is a feeling that not a single partner in the world can replace her spiritual harmony and matching of temperaments.
Returning to selectivity, I really want to see our Sui Wenjing/Han Tsun in Kostornaya/Kunitsa. The statement is bold – perhaps even absurd, but for some reason it is in Alena and Georgiy, of all our couples, that danceability, softness and magnetism with which the legendary Chinese took title after title is visible. They are also atypical, also not exactly Gullivers, also with rough edges, but it was impossible to tear yourself away from them. And Gosha and Alena are already emitting something similar – even taking into account the fact that, of all the paired elements, they only produce rotations more or less consistently.
I wonder what they will have in store for us at the end of the season. In just a few appearances on the competitive ice, they almost reached 200 points in the sum of two programs (199.89 was in Moscow) – the debut can already be considered successful, but they haven’t even had time to properly hone the elements. There is still a lot of time before the Russian Championship and the Grand Prix Final, where they actually sensationally managed to qualify literally at the last moment, and if the guys spend it fruitfully, everyone will benefit from this – both themselves and everything new to them discipline.
But what does pair skating give to Kostornaya herself? With each time she goes on the ice, more and more questions arise in her head about the appropriateness and timeliness of leaving single skating. There is a feeling that Alena did not endure just a little – during the Olympic season it seemed that the competition among women would never again reach an adequate state, but it was worth waiting a year, and at the competitions 3-2 cascades and the absence of pure ultra-si again became a given . With a full set of triple jumps, Alena could now, for example, easily win the Grand Prix stage in Krasnoyarsk and compete in Kazan. Yes, even in Moscow, where Alena and Georgy came fifth in the doubles tournament, she had every chance of winning in singles.
In the spring, Alena said in an interview that the transition to couples was connected with hip surgery, which she underwent a year ago. There was pain when jumping, and many things that had previously been easy were no longer possible at all. But even in these conditions, Alena, deciding to change discipline, left a backup plan in her head – if anything happens, I’ll go back. Surely her fans also cherished this same “fire” option in their souls. And now, when the level of women’s singles has dropped sharply, and rivalry in pairs is only growing, there is a great temptation to say: “Maybe, well?”
However, from our side this will almost certainly sound a little selfish and perhaps even shortsighted. At a minimum, because Kostornaya/Kunitsa have been around for almost a week, and are already reaching the level of competition for the top 5 within the country – for now, of course, more of a hypothetical, but still quite tangible. The top three are, of course, a long way off now – but did anyone seriously hope before the start of the season that they would be where they are at the moment? It is impossible to predict to what heights they will reach, say, next year, but the fact that in their case everything is possible can already be said with confidence.
In any case, the desire to emerge victorious from these ” They definitely have plenty of The Hunger Games. And in sports this is already half the success.
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