Surprisingly, over the 45 years of the existence of the junior world championships in girl skating, it happened only four times that all three medals were won by athletes from one country. Even more surprisingly, Russia was all four times this country: the first two hat-tricks are dated 1996 and 1998, and the last two - 2013 and 2014. Well, if you determine the most successful coach at the junior level, Eteri Tutberidze will undoubtedly have to award this title: over the past eight years, the wards of this specialist have won five world championships. Julia Lipnitskaya, Evgenia Medvedeva, Alina Zagitova and twice - Alexander Trusova became the champions of the junior world. Sasha, by the way, could well continue to perform in the junior category, more than one season, but she chose adult ice.
It is not surprising that the intrigue of the Tallinn tournament before the start of the competition came down to the question: will the skaters Tutberidze be able to conquer the entire podium or be squeezed?
No dominance in sports lasts forever. The first hire of the girls clearly showed that, in addition to the Russians, at least six more compete for the tournament medals. Including two-time U.S. champion Alice Lew and two Koreans, the best of whom, Lee Hayen, completed the short program with a second result, losing 4.84 points to Camila Valieva.
If you try to explain with words what exactly the Korean figure skater turned out to be worse than the Russian woman specifically in this box office, there is only one undeniable fact: Lee started the program with a cascade of triple lutz - a triple sheepskin coat, and Valieva completed the same cascade in the second half of the program, for which she immediately received allowance. Camila wrote down two more points on her account with a second mark, which is logical: her “Girl on the Ball” is considered one of the best short programs of the season and, if Valiev skated in an adult company, the performance could be easily nominated for an Oscar.
It is unlikely that anyone will argue that the skaters are remembered for the first time appearing in public, precisely with programs. An excellent illustration here could be the story once told to me about how the owner of one of the Chinese tea shops pulled all the customers of similar neighboring shops to himself only because he did not just pour the weighed tea into a cardboard jar with each purchase, but with his own ink, he displayed the name of the variety on a special label, dipping a goose feather in black ink and displaying hieroglyphs according to all the rules of Chinese calligraphy. Then the seller tied the label to the tea can with silk ribbon and, as a great jewel with a bow, handed the goods to the buyer.
This is probably why the “packing” of their athletes with productions that are completely impossible to complain about in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency is the very part of the work that Tutberidze’s coaching staff has always attached paramount importance to. In such cases, it’s not even scary that some programs, due to their number, begin to be similar to each other - this only increases the likelihood of a masterpiece being born. Such as has become a short program Valieva.
In 2014, “Girl in a Red Coat” by Yulia Lipnitskaya and Don Quixote by Alina Zagitova, with which the athlete won the Olympics in Pyeongchang, were equally unique. Perhaps that’s all. One could, of course, mention the Olympic program of Evgenia Medvedeva, but this is a different story: the program itself was not ingenious, but Zhenya performed it with inspiration to break her own soul in the final of the Games.
All this can not but suggest that the performance that is outstanding in terms of its impact on the viewer is not just an alloy of the choreographer’s skill and the athlete’s talent, but something more. In order for the output to turn out to be a masterpiece, many different things have to come together.
All three Russian athletes performing in Tallinn spoke about how strongly the programs help them open up. They all joined the Tutberidze group two years ago, and it is clear that even because of their age, this trinity will have a much better chance of getting to the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing than all those who are playing at the adult level now.
Will Valiev remain the leader of this new wave? With confidence, only one thing can be said now: Camille will have a harder time than anyone else. Now her “Girl on the Ball” is very powerfully working for an athlete, but the skater is skating this program for the second season, and, as she herself noted in Tallinn, most likely this was the last rental of the performance so beloved by the audience. Searching for something new amid such a vibrant composition is always problematic, and it doesn’t matter if we are talking about adult katani or junior. And we must continue to make a vivid impression on the world. Moreover, it is not known in which direction and how big a step the rivals will take.
On the other hand, in modern women’s skating, everything is primarily decided by complexity. This was all once again convinced on Saturday, when the girls went to the final rental. As soon as Alice Lew made a mistake and fell on a landing in her fourth lutz, having lost not only courage, but also more than five points, it became clear that the final, albeit high amount, most likely would not allow her to become the first. And Korean Lee Hayen, who after the short program had the most preferable chances of fighting for gold, completely ruined the integrity of her program by a grave mistake in a triple flip that happened in the middle of skating. If this had not happened, Lee’s production could well go down in history as one of the best programs of the junior season - in this regard, two Korean athletes left an impressive aftertaste.
It is interesting, by the way, that both Lee Hayen and Wi Seyyon, who played in the Tallinn finals, will reach the adult level next season, while the entire Russian trinity and Alice Lew will be able to do this only a year later. Well, on Saturday, Valieva almost unmistakably performed her arbitrary with two quadruple jumps, one of which was performed in the cascade, and by 5.35 exceeded her own already high personal record.
No less admirable was the rental of Daria Usacheva, who won a silver medal. But to climb the pedestal of Maya Khromykh, and thereby repeat Russia’s record capture of the entire pedestal, Alice Lew still prevented.