Strategic, international and political: the main reasons to watch the European Figure Skating Championships in Graz

The first reason. Sports

In figure skating, there are rare cases when the reigning champions of the continent will not be able to defend their titles at once in three types of programs out of four. Vanessa James / Morgan Sipre, Sofia Samodurova and Javier Fernandez, performing in doubles and single skating, will not participate in the current championship.

The biggest loss on this list is the Spaniard, who put an end to his career after the seventh victory in the European Championship in a row. And when stars of such a level leave the sport, the gap left in the souls of the fans does not tighten quickly. A holy place is never empty, but the upcoming replacement is unlikely to be of equal value, whatever name you call.

For the Russian fans, the three types of programs listed above are united by one pleasant nuance: domestic skaters can become new European champions with a high degree of probability, although applying the word “new” to the vice world champions Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov in pairs would not be entirely legitimate.

Serving at a serious level for six years, the couple twice won the championship of the continent (in 2017 and 2018), but in the latter they lost to James and Sipre, who had not enough stars from the sky, both in the short and in the free program (and in the latter the French set a world record ), greatly puzzling thereby his fans.

Two months later, Eugene and Vladimir took a convincing revenge at the world championship in Saitam, where they became second in the overall standings, winning the short program against the current world champions, the Chinese Wenjin Sui and Tsun Han. In other words, last year’s defeat at the European Championships in Minsk could be considered random and calmly wait for the moment when the two-time European champions regain their trophy.

But on this seemingly hassle-free path in the new season, a serious obstacle suddenly appeared in the form of a young couple of the most experienced Russian coach Tamara Moskvina and her partner Arthur Mintchuk. Alexandra Boykova / Dmitry Kozlovsky first defeated Tarasova and Morozov at the Grand Prix stages in Kelowna and Moscow, then ahead of them at the Russian Championships in Krasnoyarsk, along with medals, received the informal title of the first pair of Russia.

The second reason. Strategic

The European Championship is not the start that all the strongest should by any means approach at the peak of their form. But there are exceptions when strategy comes to the fore. A striking example is the European Championship two years ago, which allowed spreading the wings of 15-year-old Alina Zagitova. Then she was ahead of the undisputed favorite of the Olympic cycle, Evgenia Medvedev.

In the eyes of the judges, that tournament for the first time put the debutant of the season on a par with the two-time world champion, the two athletes were almost equal in the second assessment, and everything else became a matter of technology in the literal sense of the word: where Medvedev was desperately trying to maintain her position, Zagitova continued to build up the move.

Equally strategic was the victory of Yulia Lipnitskaya over Adeline Sotnikova at the European Championship in 2014. If it had not happened in Budapest, most likely, we would not have seen Lipnitskaya in the team Olympic tournament, and the world would have lost a beautiful dramatic tale about a girl in a red coat.

Arguing abstractly, the third victory in the continental championship alone can hardly have any special value for Tarasova and Morozov. But for Boykova and Kozlovsky it is incredibly important precisely in the strategic plan, because coming to the world championship in the status of the strongest couple of your continent is exactly the same as coming in the status of a champion breathing in the back. And no matter how loudly they say that the second assessment should not imply premiums for titles, it implies them to a very large extent.

Moskvina quite openly said that Boykova and Kozlovsky set themselves strategic goals. She noticed that last season she and Minchuk set the task for the couple not to be like any of those who will compete with. And at the same time I wanted to look at the wards in the framework of the World Cup and see the environment in which the guys have to ride this season.

“Both Sasha and Dima have, as we say, a plus start, they almost always give their maximum in competitions,” Moskvina said then. And she added: “Do not forget that Boykova and Kozlovsky have just learned how to correctly perform all the elements. Arthur and I simply had no time to engage in style with them. But now let's get started. ”

The presence of such serious and ambitious rivals at the European Championships changes a lot for Tarasova and Morozov. For the fourth time in a row you can’t lose. And this means that in Graz in the competitions of sports couples we will see a very tough and uncompromising battle of equal favorites, which can decorate any tournament.

The third reason. Aesthetic

“Dancing is a sport where nothing is clear. Everyone just watches and enjoys skiing, ”Betina Popova said in an interview.

The rivalry in the dance tournament of the vice-world champions Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov and the vice-champions of Europe Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin could well be classified as a strategic category. The strengths of the dancers are practically equal, this has repeatedly been confirmed during the season, including at the Russian championship, so for both duets it is equally important to win internal rivalry in Graz and get the title of the first pair of the country. This is because the degree of influence of such factors on the assessment, including the technical one, has always been especially high in dances.

But there is one factor that pushes the Russian dance strategy into the background: this whole struggle will not be fought for gold. And this means that in this only form, a priori lost by Russia and the rest of Europe, it remains to treat what is happening as a high art and ask for the thousandth time the question: “Why does everyone dance, but only Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron win?”

Absolutely amazing in all respects, the couple who was at the 15th European Championship six years ago and won five subsequent continental championships with one goal. The couple is not the most beautiful in appearance, with not the most vivid and memorable programs and not always indisputable costumes - in the short dance of this season, Gaby chose an outfit consisting of pink leggings and a turquoise leotard, completely “forgetting” about such a dance trifle as a skirt, and absolutely not bothering yourself with anxiety, how this unthinkable vanguard can be perceived by the judges.

Then why are they still out of reach?

I venture to seem biased, but the reason, perhaps, lies not in the genius of Guillaume as a figure skater and dancer, which has been spoken about in figure skating for several years, including by Russian specialists, but in the exceptional character of his partner. Papadakis is a female chameleon, and in this hypostasis she really has no equal.

Gaby is able to fantastically organically adapt to any rhythm, any musical style and, most importantly, her partner, becoming literally his shadow on the ice - the shadow of a genius. It is incredibly mesmerizing and never annoying, like the contemplation of water flowing from the mountains. Do not agree? Try a different explanation for the French dance phenomenon. Although this is exactly what during the dance tournament one way or another will be handled by everyone who arrives in Graz.

The fourth reason. International

A few years ago, when it became clear that there were more girls able to win the European Championships in Russia than there were vacancies in the national team, single coaches seriously thought about transferring the wards to the flags of other countries. It is difficult to say how far the day is when all European women's single skating can be packed with skaters who grew up in Russia and, with rare exceptions, continue to train under the guidance of their own Russian coaches, but five teams will be represented by ex-Russians at once in Graz - Armenia, Azerbaijan , Belarus, Poland and Serbia.

This, perhaps, is all that is currently needed to know about internal sports migration: it is unlikely that any of the foreign skaters will be able to compete with the Russian trio of Anna Shcherbakova, Alena Kostornaya and Alexandra Trusova. It makes no sense to guess in what order the three will be on the podium: each has an equal chance of winning or losing. But to see what in the person of sports emigrants Anastasia Galustyan, Ekaterina Ryabova, Victoria Safonova, Ekaterina Kurakova and Antonina Dubinina lost our country, it will be interesting.

The fifth reason. Political

The European Championship can be for Russia, if not the last, then the penultimate tournament, where our team will participate under its national flag. And it is impossible not to think about what a neutral status could be fraught with for Russian skaters. First of all, the loss of judicial support.

Russian technical experts and controllers are unlikely to lose their places, since they all represent not their own countries, but the International Skating Union at international tournaments, have a rather high professional reputation, and the removal of such specialists from the playing field can greatly affect the reputation of ISU itself.

But line judges may well become hostages of the situation, since their representation is directly related to national quotas. When the fight for medals is conducted at the level of tenths and hundredths of a point (at the last World Championship Sinitsina and Katsalapov overtook the strongest American duo in the free program by only 0.51 points), the presence or absence of “their own” judge in the brigade may well become a decisive factor. And not only in dancing.

Another political moment directly related to Russia may concern women's single skating. Everyone has already become accustomed to the idea that the age of admission of athletes to an adult level is likely to be revised after the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing. If in Graz it suddenly turns out that three Russian singles finish at a distance of a shot from all the others, the number of advocates for increasing the age limit will increase.

The main danger of the situation is that for such a decision the ISU does not have to wait two years: theoretically, the issue of admission can be submitted to the interim ISU congress as early as June of this year. It sounds absurd, but if you recall how many times over the past few years the most unpredictable sanctions have suddenly fallen on Russian athletes, this scenario is hardly worth discounting.