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The transfer of Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin, performers under the Georgian flag, to the Montreal school was not surprising. Led by Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, the team is today in leading positions in the world. At least in the dance world. Of the twenty duets that performed in the free dance at the 2024 World Championships, exactly half represented the school of Canadian figure skaters. As soon as coaches prepare one champion duet, dancers from all over the world flock to them in the hope of achieving success and recognition.
At the turn of the century, fashion was dictated by Natalya Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov, and the main advertising for Russian coaches was done by Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov. At one of the European Championships, journalists joked: the most difficult thing for Linichuk and Karponosov was to have time to change clothes in the zone of tears and kisses. After all, out of ten duets that performed in the last two warm-ups, seven trained with them, and the heads of the federations paying for the training demanded to appear during the television broadcast in the uniform of their national teams.
Then it was time for Marina Zueva and Igor Shpilband, for whom the victory of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir at the Vancouver Olympics became a landmark. After it, there was no end to those who wanted to train under the guidance of Soviet school specialists who had long settled overseas. Even after the coaching duo Zueva/Shpilband broke up. Both experts prefer not to talk about the reasons until now. It’s a pity, of course, because Marina and Igor complemented each other perfectly.
br>After them, Dubreuil and Lauzon emerged as trendsetters in dance, creating a new style for Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron. It’s unlikely to suit other duets, but advertising is a great thing! Today everyone is heading to Montreal. Americans Madison Chalk and Ivan Bates, who became world champions in 2024, winners of the last European Championship, Britons Laila Fear and Lewis Gibson, as well as Alison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius representing Lithuania moved there.
Just moving to Montreal in itself does not guarantee anything. In addition to six duets from the top ten of the 2024 World Cup, Dubreuil, Lauzon and Romain Haguenoer, who became a full member of the Montreal team, stood at the side during the performances of dancers from South Korea, Australia, Japan and Spain, who in the final protocol were lower than Davis and Davis, who took 12th place. Smolkina. The Ukrainian duet Maria Golubkova/Kirill Belobrov, as well as those representing Estonia, Solen Mazingu/Marko-Evgeniy Gaiduchenko, were not selected to perform the free dance at all. Although they also train in Montreal.
During the Olympic season, Davis and Smolkin quickly broke into the Russian national team and made a very worthy debut at the main international competitions. They took seventh place at the European Championships in Tallinn and 12th at the Olympics. A very good start for debutants. After joining the Georgian national team, Diana and Gleb did not make any tangible progress in terms of athletic results. At the 2024 European Championships in Kaunas they took eighth place, although they were third in the queue for the podium, which is so often talked about at dance competitions. After Beijing, two Spanish duets retired from their careers, and the two leading Russian duets are now, by the will of the ISU, unable to participate in international competitions.
However, in Kaunas, the “Georgians” Davis/Smolkin let ahead of two French duos, Lithuanian, Finnish and Czech, whom the Russians Davis/Smolkin confidently beat two years earlier in Tallinn. We can say that under the leadership of Kilyakov the duet did not take a step forward, and the dances prepared for this season did not make much of an impression on the judges. We can also remember that at the 2022 European Championships, as at the Beijing Olympics, behind Diana and Gleb stood the most authoritative figure skating body in the world, the FFKKR. Then the first person in world figure skating was Alexander Lakernik. With all due respect to the Georgian federation, it does not have such authority.
Although Davis/Smolkin is not a Georgian or Russian duo. And even calling Diana and Gleb students of American or Canadian coaches would be wrong. This is a “parental” duet, interest in which is fueled by the personalities of the partner’s father and partner’s mother. The training of the dancers, who have been training overseas for a long time, was financed mainly by the popular artist Boris Smolkin and Eteri Tutberidze, who needs no additional introduction. After changing their sports citizenship, Davis and Smolkin even returned the funds that, in full accordance with existing rules, they received through the FFKKR and the Ministry of Sports as members of the Russian national team.
In December 2019, during the ISU Grand Prix final in Turin, I had a chance to talk with Igor Shpilband, who then coached Diana and Gleb. He brought the Russian duo to the final of the junior Grand Prix, which took place simultaneously with the senior one. “Our cooperation began on the initiative of the guys themselves and Eteri Tutberidze,” said the coach. “The FFKKR functionaries, let’s say, did not interfere, but did not particularly contribute to our joint work.”
Shpilband especially emphasized that he was surprised how, with his workload, Tutberidze found the opportunity to pay so much attention to his daughter. While training the best Russian singles skaters, Eteri Georgievna managed to fly to the USA and resolve all issues, including everyday ones. The departure of Davis and Smolkin from Shpilband in the summer of 2022 is still shrouded in secrecy. The American coach himself refused to comment then.
The choice of Kilyakov as a coach surprised many. Although almost all Russian specialists working in the USA note that he managed to create one of the best dance centers in the country. We should not forget that at one time Alexey was Eteri’s partner in the show. Kilyakov also refused detailed comments after his dancers left for the Montreal school.
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“Both Virta and Moir, and Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Marina and I raised from a young age, and already mature dancers come to Montreal,” Shpilband emphasized. “Besides, American and the Canadian duets were very different and always competed with each other. In the Montreal school, which for a long time was dominated by the French with their very specific, one might say abstract, style, there is no need to talk about diversity.”
It is unlikely that the Davis/Smolkin duo can be called formed and it is unlikely that he will be first or even fifth on the priority list of Dubreuil and Lauzon. And the increased interest in Diana and Gleb in Russia can only be explained by the fact that this is a “parental” duet. Colleagues from Tbilisi said that in Georgia itself the transition of the country’s strongest dance duet to other coaches aroused virtually no interest. Now, if Khvicha Kvaratskhelia moved from Napoli to Real Madrid, not to mention Zenit, it would be a bomb!
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