In the spring of 2011, Russia did the almost impossible. After the devastating tsunami in Japan and the disruption of the World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo, only Moscow – due to the refusal of assistance in moving it from a number of prosperous countries – was able to organize the tournament in an unimaginable time and save the world. How this happened is in the material Sport.
“Miracle survivors” On the morning of March 11, 2011, news agency feeds lit up with red lines: a powerful earthquake occurred in Japan. Soon, the television news flashed eerie footage of a devastating tsunami that hit the coastal areas of the northern part of the island of Honshu due to tremors with a magnitude of 9.1.
That day, future two-time Olympic champions Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, together with coach Nina Moser, arrived in Tokyo for their first major tournament.
“We got on the train in the direction of Fukuoka, drove 50 kilometers from Tokyo, stopped at some station – and then there were several sharp jolts back and forth. This happens when the locomotive is changed on the train,” says Nina Moser. “I remember how Stas Morozov (Tatiana Volosozhar's former partner, at that time one of the couple's coaches – author's note) jokingly said: the Japanese don't know how to park. And I turn my head out the window and see a young woman standing on the platform, holding on to a pole and holding on to a pole! her eyes are twice as wide as usual. I also remember an absurd thought flashing through my mind: I must fly to Japan for the first time and immediately see a drunk Japanese woman.
But then I see how she, holding onto the pole, slowly raises her head up. I do this after her and see that the pole is swaying. At this moment, Maxim says: “Nina Mikhailovna, it seems like an earthquake. Can you imagine if this happened during our performance, at the moment when I threw Tanya into a spin?”
At this moment the light turns off. We stand for an hour or two. But there is no connection with anyone: the fact is that before the flight I was given a new phone, and, as it turned out, the old address book was not transferred to it. Tanyusha and I went to the platform to get water, and I decided to find out what was happening. And practically no one around speaks English. Finally, I stop some Japanese who said the word “earthquake.” And from his square eyes I realized that it was not ordinary.
We ended up standing for about four hours. At 19:35 the train started moving. And suddenly calls began to be heard from the bag: it turned out that it was absolutely by chance that I took my mother’s old phone with me, God bless her, there was a small amount of money on it. Like a helping hand from the past, you know. Nikolai Morozov called, then Alexander Gorshkov (at that time the president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation – author's note), (Deputy Minister of Sports of Russia) Yuri Nagornykh… Only from them did they find out what was happening around. And what’s more, some media in Russia have already reported that we almost died. Friends started calling my son, promising to help with money. It was at that moment that he started smoking, I know that for sure. Soon reporters from Vesti called us and we told them that everything was fine with us.
That evening we only reached Osaka. The train did not go any further. We had to settle down for the night, there were no places anywhere, but thanks to Miki Ando we managed to stay in one of the hotels near the station. Tanyusha and I got some food, and at that moment Nagornykh called and began to list to us everything that had already happened in the country – the tsunami, the ruins at the epicenter… I retell this to Max and remember his exclamations: “Oh,” “Oh,” and then the phrase: “Holy shit! Hit!” We turned on the TV – and there before our eyes was a broadcast of all this horror.
Were we scared? ? I remember how the next morning we returned to the station, and Max said: wow, we have a strange team. Previously, everyone would be worried now, whining, I would be dragging everyone on me. And you go and smile. I stopped and said: Max, if I cry now, will it be better? No. So I won’t cry, let’s move on.
We finally got to Fukuoka that day. And an international team gathered there, the Russians included Seryozha Voronov, Elena Glebova, who skated for Estonia. I remember we entered the locker room, and Voronov said something like: “Oh, but you died”… We were so taken aback, we said: Seryozha, we are alive, we are in front of you. But at that time we already began to understand what could have happened to us if not for these tears of Tanya, thanks to which we did not stay in the Tokyo area, but went to the south of the country. The fact is that Tanya Volosozhar’s eyes become very watery at low temperatures, making it difficult to carry out full training. And she asked Morozov to move our training camp to a warmer arena, in Fukuoka.
But a few days later Morozov told me: Nina Mikhailovna, they report that a volcano is awakening on our island. After all the scenes of destruction on TV, this was the last straw for me: I called Moscow and said: be it a carcass or a stuffed animal, but urgently take us out of here. By that time, it had already become clear that the World Championships would not take place as scheduled. Foreign skaters from Fukuoka had already flown away, we were the last ones left.
We were eventually given tickets to Moscow with a transfer in Seoul. Only there we were able to properly connect all the phones to the Internet – and they started receiving messages from friends: “Write at least one letter that you are alive”… I was so touched by this that I thanked everyone and at the same time sent a response: “People, don’t we must wait for force majeure to say good words to each other.”
In Moscow at the airport we were greeted, as I remember now, by a dozen and a half television cameras. Tanya and I were given huge bouquets of flowers. The guys were taken away to ask questions, and I stood with Stas in the second row and, I remember, telling him: “Listen, if we had won the World Championship, we wouldn’t have been greeted like that.” On television, the story about our return was headlined with the words “Miraculously Surviving.” When I saw him, I shed tears. By nature, I mobilize in crisis situations – but after the fact I realized what we went through…”
“A question of Russian prestige” When, a few days after the earthquake, it became clear that Japan was not up to the World Figure Skating Championships, and several countries – in particular Germany – announced that they would not send athletes to it, the International Skating Union announced the cancellation of the tournament. The question arose – what to do? The Japanese Figure Skating Federation proposed postponing the World Championships to the fall, but holding it where it was planned – in Tokyo. Initially, the late ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta advocated this option.
But most athletes and coaches disagreed with him: after all, figure skaters’ peak form occurs in the spring, and besides, the World Championships in the fall would cause chaos in the next season. But how to organize a new world championship in such a short time? Usually this takes two years. Before the events in Japan, due to unforeseen events, a figure skating tournament of this scale was postponed only once – in 2000, when Nice hosted the world championship instead of Brisbane. But the French still had seven months to organize the tournament. And here we were talking about weeks.
“Shortly after our return to Moscow, Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko called,” recalls Moser. “If this World Championship does not take place, is it bad for us?” he asked. I answered: in principle, yes, because according to its results there had to be a distribution of Grand Prix stages, a set of rating points, and Tanya and Maxim were debutants, this was important for us – especially taking into account the Olympic Games, which at that moment, of course, were already our important goal. Sochi, we were already planning at that time.”
And on March 21, the ISU announced that it was considering several locations for the World Championships in late April-early May. The next day, a list of seven cities appears. Canadian Vancouver, American Lake Placid and Colorado Springs, Austrian Graz, Finnish Turku, Croatian Zagreb – and Moscow.
But in reality this list was a cover. Only Moscow was ready to take on the task of organizing the championship. And on that day, when the International Skating Union tried to create the appearance that there were many candidates to pick up the “fallen banner” from the Japanese, acquaintances from the Russian team reported in the strictest confidence that they were already preparing for the home world championship. And on March 24, it was officially announced that the tournament would be held at the capital's Megasport Arena.
“The International Skating Union turned to us,” Valentin Piseev, now the honorary president of the FFKKR, and then the general director of the organization, tells us about how everything really stood. “I think, remembering that in 2005 we had a brilliant The World Championship in Moscow is the first for Russia. Contact was at the highest level, and we received, one might say, instructions from above – to do everything to organize the tournament, which was to be held in Japan.
At that time we had an excellent team in the Federation, we already had a good school for holding tournaments in Megasport, where a well-coordinated team of professionals headed by Mikhail Zagainov also worked, we held many events with the department of sports and entertainment events of Moscow, which was then headed by Alexander Polinsky. Therefore, we agreed to take on this extremely difficult task – although we only had a few weeks to organize it.”
It was clear that extraordinary expenses would be required. As a result, according to media reports, about 200 million rubles were spent on the organization. But Piseev emphasizes: for the country, first of all, it was a matter of prestige.
“Putin was late for eight seconds.” The opening ceremony of the championship was scheduled for April 27, 2011.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who was then the chairman of the government, was on a working visit to Sweden on the day the tournament started,” Piseev recalls again. “But he said, “I want to attend the opening ceremony.” It was supposed to start at 19:00, and I say Cinquante – maybe we can postpone it a little? Vladimir Vladimirovich is now with the King of Sweden Ottavio says: Valentin, a maximum of 15 minutes – no more: they are broadcasting to the whole world.
In general, we are waiting on pins and needles at the sports palace, there are special people nearby who keep in touch with Putin. They report that Vladimir Vladimirovich left the king. The time is four o'clock in the afternoon. The flight is two and a half hours. Please tell Putin that we won’t be able to make a delay of more than 15-20 minutes. They informed him – and, as they told me, he gave the command to the pilots of the plane to increase the set speed.
Next, Vladimir Vladimirovich lands in Moscow and transfers to a helicopter. The opening ceremony has already begun – and he is just getting out of the car. They announce in the arena: Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin! A pause – and he enters the hall. Late – but only by eight seconds!
The opening ceremony was historic. The Japanese were crying. Moreover, our first version was very tragic, they looked at it and asked us to smooth it out a little so that it wouldn’t be so sad. But they liked it so much that they then invited everyone who performed at the ceremony to Japan. Everyone thanked us. Cinquanta said: “Only the Russians could organize the World Cup in three weeks.”
The Russian team was then experiencing a generational change in the first post-Olympic season, so it was not possible to win gold medals at the home world championship. But overall the team's performance was successful. The bronze of 17-year-old Artur Gachinsky, who at that time was considered by many to be the heir of Evgeni Plushenko, became a sensation. True, it would be unfair not to mention that an accident helped him get on the podium – the current world champion at that time, Daisuke Takahashi, broke his skate during a free program. It was repaired right in the middle of the performance – many remember a funny shot on television that captured Cinquanta enthusiastically demonstrating sharp movements with an imaginary screwdriver to someone sitting next to him. Because of this incident, the Japanese lost a lot of points and was left without a reward.
The time for victories for Russian girls had not yet come at that moment. Adelina Sotnikova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva “starred” on the domestic scene, but were too young to perform internationally. However, Alena Leonova and Ksenia Makarova managed to secure the maximum quota in their discipline for the next World Championships, taking fourth and seventh places, respectively. Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitry Solovyov and Elena Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov, who were just beginning their path to great victories in ice dancing at that time, managed to do the same.
What about our heroes with whom we began our story? Volosozhar and Trankov were able, mainly, to recover psychologically after a dramatic trip to Japan and won silver at the Moscow World Championships, losing only to the Germans Alena Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, rivalry with whom will become one of the main confrontations in their careers.
“We managed to plan everything correctly, the guys performed very well,” Moser assessed the performance of the students. “And it was impossible to win against the Germans at that time. We didn’t have a rating yet, we performed in one of the first warm-ups in the short program. But for The goal that was important for us was the Olympic Games in Sochi. And we started towards it at the World Championships in Moscow.” br>
Athletes and coaches recall: in the end, the organization of the tournament turned out to be simply brilliant, the foreign guests were delighted. “Everything we did was always grandiose,” says Moser. “In a month, we organized and carried out with a bang what other countries spend two years preparing for. To this day, that championship remains in the memory as a historical event, and I am grateful to fate that she was a participant.”
As an afterword, I would only like to complain that not everyone remembers the good things. In 2011, Russia extended a sincere helping hand to its Japanese friends and held the World Cup, which could not take place in their country. They created something that no one was ready to take on. Now Russian figure skaters have been suspended from international competitions – and those who commit such lawlessness have obviously forgotten how we helped out the entire figure skating world.
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