Skater dominance, UFC title defense and swimming record: Russia's top sporting victories in 2019

In the past year, Russian athletes have achieved impressive and, in some cases, historical achievements. A win-win series of Russian skaters, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s defense of the UFC champion title, a scattering of medals at the World Swimming Championships, the triumph of gymnasts led by Nikita Nagorny - this will be remembered for 2019 for Russian sports.

All the gold is for the Russian skaters

Over the past few years, Russian skaters have pleased fans with their successes, but in 2019 they surpassed themselves. For the first time in history, representatives of one country managed to win all official tournaments within 12 months, which include the World and European Championships, as well as the stages and the final of the Grand Prix.

The start of the winning series was laid by Sofia Samodurova at the European Championship in Minsk, where she was able to beat the Olympic champion Alina Zagitova. Two months later, at the world championship in Saitam, student Eteri Tutberidze won her last title, which was missing in her collection. Evgenia Medvedeva won the bronze medal at the same competitions.

And already in the 2019/2020 season, Alena Kostornaya, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova triumphantly entered the world stage. Each of them won two stages of the Grand Prix, and in the final tournament, Kostornaya became the best, setting two world records: in the short program and in terms of total points. Interestingly, in eight out of nine tournaments, in addition to the first place, Russian skaters necessarily occupied the second or third.

Russian NHL

Last season in the NHL, Russian hockey players were one of the main characters. In the regular season three especially stood out - Nikita Kucherov, Alexander Ovechkin and Andrei Vasilevsky. Kucherov became the top scorer with 128 points, breaking the record among the Russians and repeating the achievement of Jaromir Jagr in transfers for the season for extreme strikers. Ovechkin was the best in goals - with 51 goals he won the Maurice Richard Trophy for the eighth time as the most successful sniper of the season. Finally, Vasilevsky was named the best goalkeeper, receiving the prize "Vezina Trophy".

And in the playoffs, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Barbashev reached the main prize. Together with the St. Louis Blues, they made their way from last place in the regular season standings to the Stanley Cup final, in which they won the Boston Bruins. They became the 31st and 32nd Russian hockey players to win the main team trophy in the NHL.

One Champion and Two UFC Challengers

In 2019, Russian athletes continued to win positions in the main promotion of mixed martial arts - the UFC. Khabib Nurmagomedov defended his champion lightweight title for the second time, defeating American Dustin Porrier in Abu Dhabi. This fight became one of the main events of the year.

Close to the title fights, two more fighters crept up. Zabit Magomedsharipov remains unbeaten in the UFC Featherweight for six fights. In 2019, he defeated Jeremy Stevens and Calvin Cattar at a show in Moscow, rising to third place in the ranking. Peter Jan achieved the same lightweight title after three victories over the year over John Dodson, Jimmy Rivera and Yurai Faber.

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Medal swimming record

Only three countries managed to win more than 15 medals at the World Swimming Championships - the USA, Australia and East Germany. In 2019, Russia was included in this list. At competitions in Gwangju, domestic swimmers won 16 awards, setting a national record. Of these, three were gold, seven silver and six bronze.

The victories were won by Evgeny Rylov, Anton Chupkov and Yulia Efimova - all of them won their gold in one day, repeating their own achievement two years ago, when they also simultaneously excelled in their heats at the 2017 World Cup. At the same time, Chupkov set a new world record in swimming 200 meters breaststroke and won bronze in the relay, Efimova supplemented her collection with silver and bronze in personal looks, and Rylov took home a collection of five awards, among which, in addition to gold, were three silver and one bronze.

Champions Club Europe

In 2019, CSKA Moscow again became the best basketball team in Europe. The wards of Dimitris Itoudis won the Euroleague for the fourth time in history adding this achievement to their four victories in the European Cup.

In the spring, the army team managed to get into the “Final Four” for the eighth time in a row. This stage almost began with chagrin - in the semifinals with Real Madrid, the Russian club lost eight points at the start of the fourth quarter. But CSKA managed to recoup and won the match with a score of 95:90. In the final with “Anadolu Ephesus”, the army team immediately seized the advantage and did not miss it to the final siren, winning 91:83.

Absolute League of Nations Series

In volleyball, 2019 was rich in various competitions, and the most prestigious of them was won by the Russian men's team. We are talking about the League of Nations, which replaced the World League. Last season, the Russian team won the debut draw of this tournament, and this year defended the title.

Head coach Tuomas Sammelvuo made a successful plan for the League of Nations - in the regular season he actively used new players who lost only three out of 15 matches, and in the final round, held in Chicago, already used the strongest squad. In the match for gold, the Russians defeated the US team with a score of 3: 1 and for the second time out of two possible won the main commercial tournament for the national teams.

Gold on the beach

Luck was accompanied by volleyball players playing in the sand. At the world beach volleyball championship, the Russian duo, consisting of experienced Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and young Oleg Stoyanovsky, managed to win gold medals for the first time in the country's history. Before, the best result in this sport for Russians was silver.

Krasilnikov and Stoyanovsky without loss passed the group stage without losing a single set. Also, they confidently moved along the playoff grid, where for the first time they lost the game only in the semifinals. In the match for gold, the Russians defeated the Germans Julius Tole and Clemens Wickler, recouping after losing the first set.

The heyday of men's gymnastics

Since Soviet times, the men's gymnastics team has not been able to win the team all-around at the world championships. In 2018, it was almost possible to fix it, but still, in a dispute over gold, the Russians lost 0.049 points to China. A year later, a rematch took place. Denis Ablyazin, David Belyavsky, Arthur Dalaloyan, Nikita Nagorny and Ivan Stretovich performed perfectly at the World Championships in Stuttgart, winning over the Chinese.

Two days later, Nagorny and Dalaloyan repeated another achievement, which last obeyed the Soviet gymnastics school. They took the first two places in the individual all-around. Gymnasts won another gold and silver medal in the vault, and Dalaloyan also managed to win bronze in exercises on the crossbar.

Fencers ready for the Olympics

Just like the year before the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Russian fencers won the overall medal standings of the pre-Olympic World Cup. At the competitions in Budapest, they won three gold medals, three silver and one bronze. The best athlete was the foil fencer Inna Deriglazova, who added two more to her four world champion titles.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the achievement that the girls achieved. In all three types of weapons, they reached the finals of team tournaments. The last time the representatives of one country succeeded in 2001, and then they were also Russian athletes.

Victory over Brazil for Bronze

The Russian beach soccer team could not win the world championship in Paraguay this year, but its performance is still worthy of praise. After a difficult group stage, the wards of Mikhail Likhachev were to meet in the quarterfinals with the powerful team of Brazil. But the Russians tactically outplayed the South Americans and left them without a semi-final for the second time in history.

Further, the Russian team still lost in overtime to Italy, but without medals did not return home. In the match for third place, beach soccer players from Russia defeated the Japanese team and won bronze medals for the second time.

The historical achievement of the fighters

The World Wrestling Championship in Nur Sultan ended with the expected victory of the Russians in the medal standings. But how convincing she was, few could imagine. In 30 categories, Russians won 19 medals of various denominations - nine gold, five silver and five bronze.

The last time the USSR team achieved the same result in 1983, when 20 sets of awards were played. Since then, it seemed that this result would be impossible to achieve even taking into account the fact that ten weight categories were increased in women, and twice as many bronze medals were awarded. There are too many strong wrestling powers, and the dominance of one over all the others can no longer be imagined.

But this time, the Russian team managed to leave the rest of the country far behind in the number of medals - Japan came in second place with nine medals. In many ways, such a solid achievement was facilitated by a breakthrough in women's wrestling - the girls put five awards in the common piggy bank, although in the last two years they only found themselves on the podium.

Golden sled

At the World Luge Championship in Winterberg, the Russian team managed to make a truly historic achievement for this sport. Tatyana Ivanova, Semyon Pavlichenko, Vladislav Yuzhakov and Yuri Prokhorov accomplished what previously seemed impossible. They interrupted the winning streak of the German national team in the relay team, which no one could beat since 2000.

In this type of program, Germany never fell even lower than second place - only if, according to the regulations, it was allowed to declare the second composition. In Winterberg, on their own track, the Germans were going to pick up another gold, especially in all the individual disciplines, they became champions. But the Russian team had their own plans. It was she who won, and the German sledges remained with bronze, losing to the Italians at the same time. Perhaps, on the scale of the whole sport, this event will not seem overly significant, but in luge there is little to compare.