Russian jumping championship among figure skaters ended on Sunday in Moscow. Sports tells how a spectacular idea threatens to turn into an exclusively junior tournament.
Battle of 12-year-olds If we discard all the pros and cons of the tournament, we can discover an interesting pattern. Our figure skating has been systematically following the path of rejuvenation for several years – in the women's singles, yesterday's juniors were smashing, and at some point we all believed that nothing else was possible in this sport. You are either a 15-year-old nimble, light girl, or, at best, you pick up things that don’t lie well. And at worst, you silently go into the sunset, because there is no place left for you.
In general, we in Russia were not against this situation, but the ISU did not appreciate the know-how and began trying to raise the bar for entering adult competitions, which led to the fateful congress in the summer of 2022. Then the age limit was raised (from 15 to 17 years), and we entered a new reality for which we were completely unprepared. Our experts constantly said that we could handle it, that it would be easy to adapt to other conditions – and very soon not only juniors, but also adult skaters would be winning on the country’s ice rinks.
The authenticity of this statement was fully demonstrated by the jumping skating championship, where two 12-year-olds Margarita Bazylyuk (champion) and Elena Kostyleva (bronze), as well as 16-year-old Adelia Petrosyan (silver), who was still very lucky with anthropometry, competed in the personal final. What the figure skater herself openly talks about in her interviews.
But that’s okay, it’s much more surprising that rejuvenation has reached the male singles, who were previously not noticed in this way. In the men's personals, essentially only Arseny Fedotov (champion) and Lev Lazarev (silver) were able to compete with each other – both with the most complex, high-quality quads and with the number 14 in the “age” column. Their formal opposition was 19-year-old Ivan Popov, but there was no talk of any equal rivalry.
The team tournament that took place on Sunday fully confirmed the trend. The regulations meant that the captains – Alexander Gallyamov and Dmitry Kozlovsky – would choose skaters for each round independently, and in the final both made a choice in favor of the youth. The main “old man” for the guys was 21-year-old Pyotr Gumennik, but the girls basically had no age – they sent Bazylyuk and Kostyleva. And the bet would have worked for both captains if such an offensive and painful fall from the first jump had not happened to Elena in the final.
As a result, the main dominator of the tournament, obviously, was Bazylyuk – she was responsible for the defeat in the individual tournament, the already legendary 4-4 cascade and the greatest contribution to the victory of the “blue” team. Behind her comes Kostyleva, who was perhaps hampered only by her too-tight competition schedule – by now, Lena has been competing for about two weeks in a row, without days off. And then – our future leaders of men's single skating Arseny Fedotov and Lev Lazarev, who carried on both days with a minimum number of errors.
And everything would be fine, but where are the adults? It turns out that the format of the jumping tournament itself, the regulations of which stipulate the need to perform a series of complex elements in each round, is more aimed at children. It is obvious that the conventional Bazylyuk is purely physically easier to do multiple repetitions – which in no way detracts from her talent, of course, but raises the question of what to do for those who are already over 16-17 years old?
If the current jumping regulations are maintained The tournament runs the risk of eventually turning into a junior tournament, and this has both a plus and a minus. With the latter, everything is obvious – the qualifications seem to have defeated us, teenagers are again ruling the roost. On the other hand, the current competitive grid of domestic Russian tournaments provides wide scope for self-realization. And even if jumping is reserved for children, adults will always have room for creativity in show programs. And for those who are neither here nor there, you can try your luck at traditional competitions such as the Russian Championship.
The main thing is that the desire for rejuvenation does not result in the already traditional increase in grades for components to technique. Let the children jump. This, as we understand, is what they really do best in the world.
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