Tuktamysheva with a quadruple sheepskin coat
The most talked-about event of the last days in figure skating is the appearance of yet another “quad player,” that is, an athlete performing quad jumps. She became the 2015 world champion Elizabeth Tuktamysheva. However, it’s too early to say that she will include a new leap into the program. Sports agent Ari Zakaryan showed in his Instagram how a 22-year-old skater performed a quadruple sheepskin coat in training.
For women's single skating, this is a real event. Before, it was believed that quadruple jumps were the prerogative of very young athletes. The only skater over 16 years old who performs a four-turn jump in competitions is Elizabeth Tursynbaeva, who, at the age of 19, made four salchows at the World Championships, which provided her with a silver medal.
In addition to Tursynbaeva, Mika Ando, Alexandra Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova, Camila Valieva and Alice Lew submitted to the four jumps. Everyone but Ando, these complex elements provided a crazy advantage over rivals and victory in the competition. In this regard, fans and experts often argue that adult athletes without the ultra-si elements can no longer fight for medals, since it is supposedly impossible to master quadruple jumps from scratch at this age.
But Tuktamysheva was able to show the four-piece sheepskin coat at least in training, as did the Japanese Rika Kihira, who went further and performed lighter salchow at the official warm-up before the Grand Prix home stage. By the way, both of these skaters own a triple axel and will now try to become the first adult athlete to perform it in the same program with a quad jump. So far, only Junior Lew has been able to do this.
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Publication by Ari Zakarian (@arizakarian) Nov 26, 2019 at 3:51 am PST
According to the well-known trainer Tatyana Tarasova, Tuktamysheva can try to learn the quadruple lutz, since she gets the triple almost always perfectly.
“I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s wonderful. You know, there’s a saying: good egg for Holy Day. Lisa Tuktamysheva, working with Alexei Mishin, could long jump the quadruple sheepskin coat. She and Lutz could jump. She is a young girl with a huge leap. She can jump many quads. Just until the students of Tutberidze began to jump the quadruples, everyone was somehow confused. They jumped - they all went to jump. Bravo, Tutberidze, ”Tarasova told Sport24.
The fourth sheepskin coat opens Tuktamysheva wider prospects at the upcoming championship of Russia, where she will fight for medals and getting into the Russian team. If this element is included in the free rental of a 22-year-old skater, her program will definitely have a higher base cost than Alina Zagitova, Evgenia Medvedeva and Alena Kostornaya. At the same time, Shcherbakova and Trusova will no longer be able to fall in their quadruple jumps - they may already not be enough points lost if Tuktamysheva purely performs a quadruple sheepskin coat and two triple axels.
Triple Axel for Higuchi
Other skaters also try to reduce the technical backlog during the season, and an easier way is to learn the triple axel. Following the task of Alexandra Trusova, the Japanese Wakaba Higuchi coped with this task. She, like Tuktamysheva, performed a jump in training and posted a video on social networks.
In 2018, Higuchi became the silver medalist of the World Cup, but since then she has not achieved any significant success. A triple axel can help her reanimate her career and get closer to the favorites of this season. It is not yet possible to say that Higuchi will be able to threaten Russian skaters at the World Championships, but she will increase competition within her country.
The failed Axel Leonova
Now only two Russians own a triple axel. Alyona Leonova also tried to learn this jump before the start of this season - this statement was made by the athlete herself. However, the 29-year-old skater was prevented by personal circumstances.
“Axel I even tried at the end of last season in training, but then I stopped trying, because I had a wedding just around the corner, and I decided that I needed to take care of myself somehow. But I think that I will resume these attempts. I have a good technique. You just need to do this on a daily basis. And I tried the quadruple only once, on a fishing rod, in America, when I was still skating with Morozov. And I fell very painfully. After that, she didn’t even try anymore, ”Leonova told Fontanka.
Missing Skates
After the Grand Prix stage in Japan, the Russian skaters participating in it faced difficulties. After the flight from Tokyo to Moscow, they were left without luggage with skates and suits - Japan Airlines was unable to deliver them on time. The training process this week among athletes was in jeopardy.
Particularly unlucky were the skaters, who were soon to compete in the Grand Prix finals. Some of them need to go to start on December 5th. Japan Airlines promised to return all missing items by November 27th. Alexander Gallyamov, speaking in tandem with Anastasia Mishina, said that this was not the first time he was faced with a similar situation.
“We arrived only on November 25 in the evening. They promised to bring luggage with skates on the 27th. On the 26th we were given a day off to recover from training, and tomorrow we are leaving for work. A week remains to prepare for the Grand Prix finals, and it is too early to talk about any difficulties. A similar situation was after the Junior World Cup, when the luggage did not arrive from Zagreb, but two days later it was delivered to the house. If anything, we have old skates and we don’t have to spend more time rolling, ”Gallyamov told Sport24.
“Figure skating will happily get rid of the Russians”
The situation with the possible introduction of new sanctions by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in relation to Russian sports may also affect figure skating. So far, the WADA Executive Committee has not made a final decision. However, there are already those who hope to create additional obstacles to Russian athletes. According to Ukrainian journalist Artyom Frankov, the world of figure skating will supposedly be “happy” if Russian athletes remain “overboard”.
“I will follow the right example and I will not say anything, just waiting for decisions not only of WADA, but also of specific federations. It’s clear that a number of sports will be happy to get rid of Russian athletes - for example, figure skating or rhythmic gymnastics, ”said Frankov in his Telegram channel.
It is worth noting that, according to the recommendations of WADA, even in the case of the imposition of sanctions, Russian athletes will be able to participate in competitions, but under a neutral flag and after fulfillment of certain additional conditions, and we are not talking about a complete "deliverance".