2022 Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova was not included in the announcement Tatiana Navka's show new season. Sports tells why the famous figure skater was excommunicated from training and performances.
An insidious diseaseIce shows are held in Russia all year round, providing constant employment not only for those who have completed their careers, but also for current skaters. The New Year’s “Nutcrackers” and “Evenings on the Farm” have just died down when producers are already announcing productions for the summer season. Navka is launching «Ruslan and Lyudmila» again — on the poster there are close-ups of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, Alina Zagitova and even — for the first time after the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and disqualification — Kamila Valieva.
But two months ago, among those announced The show's artists included Olympic champion Shcherbakova. She was replaced by Valieva, because Shcherbakova could not return to training after surgery on her leg.
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The last time Anna appeared on the ice was in January in the play “Scheherazade”. Then there were master classes for young skaters and a trip to China. Moreover, other athletes went there to perform at shows in Beijing and Chengdu, while Anna opened an exhibition of Russian goods. Well, she also held an autograph session for the fans.
Then there was a jumping tournament, where Shcherbakova worked as a presenter, a training camp with the French 2012 European champion Florent Amodio, and a trip to Paris — this was for the soul. Several advertising integrations, a trip to the Chinese embassy for an event, the Channel One Cup as the captain of the blue team. And finally, on March 20, Anna published a video from the hospital room on her Telegram channel. She had to undergo surgery and subsequent recovery.
It is interesting that the operation and the announcement of Anya’s participation in the summer shows “Ruslana and Lyudmila” happened around the same time in March. That is, both the organizers of the show and the athlete herself clearly expected that by June she would be able to fully return and perform. But something, unfortunately, did not go according to plan.
In general, after the victorious Olympics, Shcherbakova suffered from many health problems. In August 2022, she had surgery on her knee, then had infectious mononucleosis — an insidious disease that significantly weakens the immune system and prevents normal training. And here comes the operation again.
As Anna told in an interview with ballerina Maria Khoreva, this injury has been bothering her for a long time, since 2017. Then there was a broken leg, which was successfully healed, but they did not pay attention to the fact that during recovery Anya also injured her knee.
“When the injury worsened, the trainers knew about it, we reduced the load, supported the knee with tapes, did examinations. But it was difficult to understand what exactly the problem was. Only later did we realize that there was no way to cope except with surgery. Although we tried different things,” she said.
The Diamond Is Missing For almost five years, Shcherbakova had to put more or less strain on her injured knee. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt so much that it affected the technical complexity of the programs, but it still bothered Anya a little: “I had to remove some positions in the rotations because the knee wouldn’t bend. It bothered me a little on flights. But in general it never happened.” was the main problem for me. My head was always busy with something and I was lucky that before the Olympic Games the injury bothered me just enough for me to train.”
As Anna herself noted, previously all health problems, from a sore neck and back to fractures and pneumonia, could not put her out of action.
But when you take out a lot on credit, you still have to pay off the debts, and with interest. Preparing for the Olympics with the required physical and moral resources is a severe credit history for the athlete’s health. So it’s understandable that as soon as Anya’s superhero mode turned off and her main goal in life was achieved, her seemingly invulnerable body began to malfunction.
In sports terms, she has little to lose now, because she has already won the World Championship, European Championship and the Olympics. And she even won the Russian Championship — the most high-status tournament in isolation — three times. So even if Anya were healthy, it is unlikely that she would be interested in competing.
But from the point of view of participation in the show, Shcherbakova loses a lot — from the opportunity to earn good money to a direct exchange of energy with the audience who loves her.
Tatiana Navka diplomatically said that she is counting on Anna in “Ruslan and Lyudmila”: “We hope that Shcherbakova will participate in our ice show and we really want this. While Anya is going through the rehabilitation process and we expect that she will be able to perform. I hope that her recovery will go according to schedule, I really want to see Anechka on our team too. I’m sure that this will happen.”
We all, in general, hope so. Without Anna Shcherbakova, it’s as if a large, noticeable diamond has disappeared from the crown of Russian women’s singles skating — overall it’s beautiful, but the impression is not complete at all.
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