There are not so many performances such as what Anna Shcherbakova demonstrated on Saturday in the final of the women's singles skating of the Russian championship - to tears and breathlessness - there are not so many in the history of figure skating.
The skater's points, unfortunately, could not be recorded as an official world record, but it was not at all about them.
And the fact is that with her performance, Anya removed all the questions in the discussion, which has excited the minds of the fans for the past couple of years: which of the equal championship troika of Khrustalny under the abbreviation TSCHK (Trusova, Shcherbakova and Kostornaya) will be the first to break away.
Reasoning on this topic can be called belated, after all, in Chelyabinsk, Shcherbakova became the country's champion for the third time in a row, but even last season the results of three athletes often suggested that there was no clarity about the leader even within the group.
Alena Kostornaya won two significant victories in the Grand Prix finals and at the European Championship, as a result of which she was recognized by the ISU as the best rookie of the year, although Anna was twice ahead of Alena in the free program in those competitions.
In other words, she was inferior to her teammate only because Kostornaya had a triple axel in the short one, which created an airbag for the skater, and Shcherbakova did not have such a trump card.
As for Sasha Trusova, she was systematically brought to the world championship and, if it took place, the skater, who had previously been content with only bronze medals, could get her considerable share of fame.
Why did Shcherbakova manage to spend the first half of this season in such a way that the last day we are talking only about her?
Is it only because Trusova, and then Kostornaya, made a choice in favor of another mentor in the summer?
I think this is not the only reason.
I remember how in one of the interviews during the junior skating of his daughter, Shcherbakova's father said that Anya was engaged in figure skating not in order to win something in it, but first of all because she really loves to skate and cannot imagine herself without ice.
And that if the daughter suddenly ceases to like this activity, then neither he nor his wife will insist on continuing training.
When an athlete fanatically loves what he does, he never perceives the training process as violence.
Such people do not have to be persuaded, convinced of the need for this or that work, even if it is hard labor.
And most importantly, such athletes begin to understand very early that the degree of mastery depends primarily on their own willingness to take the maximum from the specialists with whom you work, and not wait until knowledge is pushed into you by force.
Accordingly, such skaters almost never have weak points - they will gladly eliminate them themselves.
If we agree that Shcherbakova is an example of just such an athlete, then in the "crystal" troika of TSCHK she should have stood apart from the very beginning.
Trusova and the experts of the former coaching staff who worked with her constantly emphasized: they say, Sasha's priority is only jumps, and work on the other components fascinates her much less, Kostornaya, having won the European Championship, clearly outlined her own priorities: to compete at the Olympic Games, immediately after them to end their careers and go to study.
Of course, there is nothing reprehensible in such an approach to sports, but it becomes clear why it was Anya, and not Alena with her magical sliding and not Sasha with crazy jumps, who began to gain absolutely fantastic points.
The comparison can be considered incorrect (after all, Kostornaya could not come to Chelyabinsk for quite understandable reasons), but I do not think that I will be mistaken, having written: Shcherbakova's crazy triumph on Saturday allowed the skater to make a grand leap forward.
First of all - in the eyes and minds of the judicial community.
In other words, you will not have to be surprised at all if this public is about to begin to perceive Shcherbakova, as it once perceived Evgenia Medvedeva, who has not lost a single start for more than two years.
As you know, the latter is remembered, so the two-time world champion is still associated by most fans not with her pre-Olympic procession over the bodies of her defeated rivals, but with her free program in Pyeongchang.
Not lost (Medvedeva and Zagitova scored an absolutely equal amount of points in the final), but also did not allow them to become the first.
It was there that Medvedeva truly and, perhaps, for the first time appeared before the world in all the power of her character.
An athlete who can be outstripped, but not broken.
In Chelyabinsk, Shcherbakova did the same.
Character, not impeccable skating, was at the forefront of her final performance.
Remove the first component, and the second will fade greatly.
Can Shcherbakova lose?
Alas, yes.
The point here is not even that this has happened to Anna more than once.
The rules for women's single skating are designed in such a way that without a triple axel in the program of any skater who claims to stand on the podium, there will be a gaping hole.
It is no coincidence that the author of the highest result in the short program (85.45) is currently Kostornaya, who received almost eleven points for the triple axel in the record rental of the Grand Prix finals.
While for a perfectly executed double you can't get even five.
The Japanese championship, which ended a day later than the Russian one, was to some extent relieved of the illusion that some of the Russian girls could be easily relieved in the Olympic season.
The champion of the country Rika Kihira showed in the free program a superbly performed quadruple salchow and a triple axel, and the skater's program was set in such a way that there was clearly a place for the second jump in three and a half revolutions.
On the other hand, a year ago Kihira twice had a chance to win a start that would be fundamental for any skater.
But she lost the World Championship to Alina Zagitova, and the Grand Prix final to Kostornaya.
As for Shcherbakova, it was in Chelyabinsk that she showed that she can cope with difficulties like no one else.