Last weekend, two-time Olympic silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva took part in her first stage of the Grand Prix of the new season. She performed at the Skate Canada tournament in Kelowna. Among her rivals were both experienced Rika Kihira from Japan and Brady Tennell from the USA, whom the Russian woman had recently beaten in a dispute for the bronze medal of the World Cup, and debutants Yu Young from South Korea and Alexander Trusov from Russia, which already competed with adult athletes.
Starting in Canada was extremely important for Medvedev. She actually got two home stages of the Grand Prix for herself, where you can qualify for the finals. In addition to Moscow, which hosts the Rostelecom Cup a month later, she had the opportunity to earn points in the city closest to Toronto, where the athlete is led by Brian Orser.
But Medvedev did not use her first chance to successfully perform at the Grand Prix stage. She flunked her short program, without performing any of her jumping elements. And if one mistake could still be corrected, then a whole cascade of them immediately led to a big lag behind rivals, some of which went ahead on the elements of ultra-si. Medvedev scored the lowest points since last year’s championship in Russia and immediately fell behind the leading Kihira by almost 20 points.
For an arbitrary rental, which Medvedev also failed at her last competition in Shanghai, she was able to get together. In addition to the wrong rib on the lutz, the judges did not find anything to complain about. The figure skater pleased the fans with the performance of a rare cascade of salchows - the Rittberger and was rewarded with the highest marks since the Olympics, except for home starts.
146.73 points for any rental - this is three points lower than the result at the World Cup, which brought Medvedev bronze. This season, the star trio of Eteri Tutberidze - Alina Zagitova (at the unofficial Japan Open), Rika Kihira and junior Kamila Valieva received higher marks. Elizabeth Tuktamysheva, even with two triple axels in her arsenal, is still lower, like silver medalist at the US Grand Prix stage Tennell and bronze medalist of the Canadian competitions Yu Young.
But figure skating still consists of two rentals, and Medvedev is not the first and not the last athlete to deal with the problem of high-quality performance for two consecutive days. Predicting when she manages to show both clean programs becomes harder each time, and sometimes it leads to far-reaching consequences.
The misfires in the short program at Skate Canada drove Medvedev to fifth place in the total score. While Trusova and Kihira competed with each other in their league, Medvedeva had a chance to get around Tennell and Yu Young, but it did not work out. The Russian woman should be especially disappointed because of the loss to the Korean athlete. After all, the latter does not fight for the Grand Prix finals, since she is only declared for one stage. But it was her who got the valuable rating points for the bronze medal, after which they “burned out”. Medvedev also fought, but immediately capitulated, losing the opportunity to speak at such a prestigious tournament.
Of course, the purely theoretical chances of the two-time world champion to go to Turin remain. She needs to win in Moscow, gain the highest possible points and hope for unsuccessful rivals. But in reality, such a scenario is practically impossible.
Firstly, with 22 points, which are now the ultimate dream for the skater, they do not qualify for the Grand Prix finals. History knows examples when there were still enough of them, but usually this happened in case of refusal of one of the participants. Only in 2009, Japanese Akiko Suzuki was incredibly lucky to qualify for the finals, having an active victory and fifth in regular stages.
Secondly, you still have to try to win the Moscow Grand Prix stage. There, Medvedeva will again confront Trusov, who even with a fall on the fourth salkhov breaks world records. The composition of the participants in Russia will be less serious, of the famous figure skaters only Stanislav Konstantinov and Mariah Bell from the USA will be added. But all the same, in all hands, Medvedev can hardly claim gold, while Trusova speaks.
It cannot be ruled out that the Rostelecom Cup will be the last international tournament to be played by Medvedev this season. After the Grand Prix, the Russian Championship in Krasnoyarsk will follow, where the squad for the European and World Championships will be formed. Of course, it will be a plus for the skater to take time for a break and better prepare for the national championship, while her young competitors will ride in Turin, and then get to Siberia for a long time.
But still, Medvedev has not yet demonstrated how she will be able to surpass the same Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova and Alena Kostornaya, whose results are the best this season. Even if the two-time world champion overcomes all internal problems and gives out two clean rentals, which she could not do, for example, a year ago in Saransk, this does not eliminate the gap created by the students of Tutberidze.
Also, don’t forget about Alina Zagitova - she hasn’t performed anywhere before with two full shows, but at the Japan Open she has at least shown that the production of the Laurence of Arabia soundtrack looks great, and she is in good physical and psychological shape.
Medvedev’s chance to save the season lies only in the balance and stability that she needs to achieve, as well as in learning new leaps. At least in Russia, competition without the elements of ultra-si cannot be won this season. Four jumps and a triple axel are not at all the prerogative of yesterday's juniors, as shown by the examples of Tuktamysheva and Elizabeth Tursynbaeva, who beat Medvedev at the World Championships after long and unsuccessful attempts to insert the simplest of the four salches in their program.
At the same time, Medvedeva’s career will not end there. Obviously, in the next two months she will not be able to reach a radically new level, but the skater has repeatedly said that she is looking far ahead and is thinking about speaking at the Olympic Games in 2022. If this is her main goal, then fans need to be patient and support their favorite. The path will be long, and rivals, whose number is growing every year, will not be allowed to rejoice in intermediate successes.