Trusova’s four jumps and Medvedeva’s fight for the medal: what to expect from the Canadian figure skating Grand Prix

The real debut of Trusova

Women's competition at the Canadian Grand Prix stage boasts the most powerful squad. Several girls who will perform at Skate Canada have recently fought for the World Cup medals. In addition, the most anticipated debutant of this season will join them.

It's about Alexander Trusova. The queen of the quadruple jumps, as the Russian woman is called all over the world, will perform at her first stage of the Grand Prix and will have very high chances of winning. She already managed to break the world record of Alina Zagitova in the sum of two marks, and this happened even before the phenomenal performance of the 15-year-old skater at the Japan Open tournament. Then Trusova performed four quadruple jumps in the free program, including in the cascade and in the second half of the program. Even among men, only a few are capable of this.

Trusova is ready to repeat her achievement in Kelowna, which will no doubt allow her to claim first place. Figure skating enthusiasts can be alerted only by the athlete's fall in training, which looked very dangerous, but after that she continued to warm up and perform quadruple jumps.

In addition to Trusova, several well-known figure skaters will claim for awards, including another Russian Evgenia Medvedev. She recently marked the first victory in an international tournament for a long time, but at the same time she showed the result, which is usually typical for juniors. It’s impossible to make more mistakes as in Shanghai, Medvedeva. She is still strong in components, unlike Trusova, and the Canadian stage will be practically home for her. But Medvedev no longer makes promises about quadruple jumps and new cascades, since first of all she needs to start again to do what she knew how to do.

Otherwise, Eugene can get around not only Trusov, but also Rick Kihira, as was already the case in the preseason tournament in Canada. True, the Japanese have enough of their problems. Recently, she injured her ankle, which made her refuse to complicate the program with four salchs. Kihira still hopes to execute three triple axels in two programs, but she did not look too convincing at the Japan Open with her crown element and lost even to Zagitova. The physical form of Ricky so far raises questions, but since she did not begin to withdraw from the competition, she is ready to show old achievements.

You can not discount the American Bradley Tennell, who just a week ago took second place at the home stage of the Grand Prix. Moreover, the skater bypassed Elizabeth Tuktamysheva, who relies on triple axels, while Tennell takes on the quality of performance and grace inherent in a small number of athletes.

It will be interesting to watch the performance of a rising star from South Korea Yu Young, also performing a triple axel, as well as Japanese Marine Honda. Finally, Serafima Sakhanovich will become the third participant from Russia. Her formerly gifted junior is waiting for her debut at the Grand Prix under the leadership of new coach Angelina Turenko.

Low chances of Lazukin

The main favorite of men's competitions should be two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu. This season, he has come almost the same way as Medvedev. He, too, managed to win by winning the tournament in Oakville, but made so many mistakes that fans of the skater should worry. None of his five quadruple jumps the Japanese did not perform cleanly. But at the same time, the judges did not dare to leave Chania without solid estimates, and as a result, he scored 279.05 points - only Nathan Chen, who had the hopping part, was always better.

Chania will not have competitors in the second stage of the Grand Prix, so even with a couple of falls he can win the Canadian stage for the first time in his career. Also, his compatriot Keiji Tanaka and Italian Matteo Rizzo, who have already managed to compete in three competitions and began to prepare the fourth rittberger, will claim places on the podium. Canadan Roman Sadovsky, who has the necessary set of elements for this, but has no stability, can also compete for the medal.

Only Andrei Lazukin will represent Russia, since the originally announced Mikhail Kolyada withdrew from all stages of the Grand Prix due to sinusitis. The new season does not work out for the skater from St. Petersburg - 168.54 points at the tournament in Bergamo and 203.91 in Helsinki speak for themselves. But then Lazukin complained of lack of physical fitness and at least tried to perform the quadruple lutz. Progress on his part is still possible, but hardly after two weeks from the last start.

Transformation of Tarasova and Morozov

Another highly anticipated event of the Canadian Grand Prix stage is the performance of Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov. One of the strongest couples in the world, to whose level none of the other competitors reach, this season managed to surprise her fans in both good and bad terms. At open rentals in Moscow, they showed how much they added in choreography after moving to the USA to the new coach Marina Zueva, but then failed at the first official start in Salt Lake City, without scoring 195 points.

This result was unpleasant, but not surprising. Tarasova and Morozov rolled into the season for a long time, and after the change of coach, this process simply could not help but drag out. In addition, the couple was unsettled by a delay due to problems with the visa, which did not allow them to practice properly and fly to Salt Lake City on time.

In Canada, the couple can transform, but Tarasova and Morozova have no other way - they went to Zueva just to add to the imagery and finally be on top. They have repeatedly overcome problems with technology in the past, and now nothing should stop them from doing this again. The Russians will not feel much pressure from their rivals, except that the owners of the ice Lyubov Ilyushechkina with her new partner Charlie Bilodo may surprise something.

Dancers fight for a place in the sun

The main characters of the dance tournament will be the Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donoghue. They just won the home stage of the Grand Prix with a score of 209.55 points, simultaneously setting a personal record in rhythm dance. Now they do not have to travel far from Las Vegas and undergo acclimatization, so that, perhaps, they will already now secure their participation in the Grand Prix finals.

Only the owners of the ice Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier can prevent the dancers from the USA from taking first place. They have already won one home victory by winning the Autumn Classic tournament, and with a good indicator for such an early start - 202.49 points. In addition, the duo tries to keep the brand and delight with something original.

The fight for bronze will be as open as possible. Two more pairs from Canada and from the USA will perform in Kelown, representatives of Spain Sarah Hurtado and Cyril Halyavin, tearing into the elite, as well as the British Laila Fir and Lewis Gibson. Russia will be represented by Sofya Evdokimova with Egor Bazin and Betina Popova with Sergey Mozgov, who have fewer chances for a medal than their competitors.

Last year's third numbers of the national team of Evdokimov and Bazin began the season with a modest 164.62 points at the tournament in Bratislava. But then their training was disrupted due to pain in the partner’s back, and now they had a whole month to finalize the programs. Popova and Mozgov will try to show how they found a balance between their own creativity and the dryness of the rules - this distinctive couple continues to suffer from judicial quibbles this season, receiving about 175 points for their performances.