Schleicher and Konanykhina debuts: what to expect from Russian divers at the Tokyo Games

Diving in the format of the Olympic Games is a significant sport: since 2000, eight sets of awards have been played here. True, most of them (and this has already become a tradition) are sent to China. Exceptions in individual disciplines have happened only five times over the past 20 years, and the author of one of these victories at the Games in London was the Russian springboard Ilya Zakharov. Four more non-Chinese victories out of 20 possible were recorded in the Olympic format in synchronized jumping. In other words, the statistics are such that in Tokyo the most intriguing questions remain: will it be possible to defeat the Chinese and will a Russian athlete be able to be among these lucky ones?

There have been many complaints against the representatives of the Celestial Empire in the past few years. More precisely - to the address of the judges, who by default perceive the Chinese jumpers much more loyal than any others. At some point, it even seemed that certain shifts were outlined in the minds of the arbitrators. However, the head coach of the Russian national team, Svetlana Moiseeva, denied this assumption when she returned from the May World Cup, which was held in Tokyo.

“No one is still ranked on a par with the Chinese. The jumpers of this country do not allow themselves to be mistaken, this is exactly what is expected from them at the Olympics, therefore, the attitude towards the athletes of this country is obviously different. In recent years, many experts really tried to break the stereotype, paid attention to the fact that the Chinese often jump "dirty", spread their legs in spiral jumps, which is a gross mistake, do not straighten their knees in the "bent" position, side, but the criticism led only to the fact that the Chinese coaches instantly took all the comments into account and the Chinese athletes began to jump much cleaner at important tournaments. Therefore, the refereeing, alas, still remains "Chinese", - said Moiseeva.

It is difficult to disagree with the coach.

A perfect example in this regard happened just in Tokyo: the Chinese woman on the springboard in the final jump of the preliminary series was injured, landing on the springboard sideways and severely skinning her leg.

With a "zero" mark, the girl nevertheless made it to the finals and, jumping on one leg, became the third.

Even the fact that the athlete, climbing on the apparatus, barely moved, could not normally push off the board, did not become an obstacle for the judges' perception and, as a result, openly “saved” the jumps.

It is clear that with such an attitude on the part of the referees, the Chinese athletes feel confident and brazen in an amicable way, not yet starting to compete.

Over the past two Olympic cycles, the main weapon of the Russian national team was rightfully considered the men's synchronized duet on a three-meter springboard. Vice-champions of the Games in London Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov achieved their first significant success in 2011, winning silver medals at the World Championships in Shanghai, then they repeated this result twice at the world championships in Barcelona and Kazan, and in 2017 became champions.

But in 2019, Zakharov was disqualified for a year and a half for missing doping tests, and therefore decided to end his career. The postponement of the 2020 Games pushed the athlete to return, but Ilya did not qualify for the Olympic team. The champion's false start destroyed the secret hope of many fans to see him again on the springboard, paired with Kuznetsov. Accordingly, the question remained open: will Evgeny be able to maintain his former Olympic competitiveness in a duet with Nikita Schleikher?

At the European Championships and World Series tournaments, the Russian guys succeeded.

But Nikita and Evgeny do not have the advantages that the synchronous tandem had in the previous composition: Zakharov and Kuznetsov beat their rivals primarily with unique and at the same time very confident difficulty, performing combinations that no one else did.

The free jumps of the current duo are a little simpler, the popularity in the world of great achievements is not so high, and the experience of joint performances is much less.

At the same time, both Kuznetsov and Schleicher are unusually good separately.

The individual advantages of Kuznetsov on the three-meter springboard are primarily in his vast experience, which is subtly emphasized by a thick beard - a stylish accessory for the Olympic season. And in the incredible motor talent that distinguished the athlete from the moment of his appearance in the national team and since then has not gone anywhere. Evgeny is able to jump perfectly both from the springboard and from the platform, he is perfectly coordinated, but this is where his vulnerability lies: it can be difficult for naturally talented athletes to force themselves to do monotonous training work. Two years ago, Mikhail Ugryumov, a well-known specialist in the jumping world, even remarked about Kuznetsov: he is terribly upset that such a talented and coordinated guy still cannot be taught screw jumps.

“To teach, let's talk frankly, is not possible for everyone and not for everything.

Zhenya is a truly incredible talent, which never happens.

But the screws are his weak point.

The point is not even that Kuznetsov receives insufficiently high marks for screw jumps.

When an athlete has any vulnerable fad, it gives rise to a great inner uncertainty, gnaws psychologically, ”said Ugryumov.

Psychology remains a stumbling block for 31-year-old Kuznetsov.

In any case, Moiseeva, speaking about Eugene, noticed exactly this.

“Zhenya is really capable of winning at competitions of any level, everything is easy for him, but at the most crucial moment, as if something is missing, some kind of inner confidence. In terms of his physical condition, despite his considerable age, he is not inferior to absolutely anyone, but for a high result he needs not only to be at his peak, but also so that all other factors come together. We all naturally hope that this will happen in Tokyo, ”said Moiseeva.

On the side of Schleicher individually - youth, freshness and a complex program. For a long time, Patrick Hausding held the palm of the world championship in ski jumping, but with age, the German was forced to let go of his ambitions a little. But rather, he simply realized that the difficulty in diving in itself is not a panacea: despite the fact that at a certain stage of his career, Hausding actually showed jumps that are beyond comprehension, the overall quality of their performance was rarely high. For 13 years of performances at the highest level, the German won ski jumping only at the European Championships. At the Games in Rio he became the third, but just there in his program there were no longer overly complicated (and, accordingly, risky) combinations.

A similar fork of "complexity / quality" was once attacked by Mexican high jumpers.

Before the 2011 World Championships, their team relied on acrobatic orientation, as a result of which the athletes' rotation speed increased in a short time and the opportunity to master unique jumps in complexity appeared, but this brought success, by and large, only once - at the 2015 World Championships. in Kazan, where the Mexican synchronous duo won silver awards.

By the way, it is the Mexican Randal Valdez (he has been training since childhood under the guidance of a Chinese coach) who is now considered one of the favorites on the ten-meter tower.

And a direct competitor to the strongest Russian breeder Alexander Bondar.

When Bondar began to play for the Russian national team in 2015 on a ten-meter platform, Ugryumov noticed that he saw the guy's colossal potential, first of all, in synchronized jumping - with Viktor Minibaev. At the last world championship, the duo won silver, and Bondar himself also won bronze in the individual final. Another question is that the men's rig is an extremely specific projectile: the complexity of the programs, the competition and the density of results here are such that even a tiny blot of a favorite can turn the entire protocol upside down.

This concerns the women's tower to a lesser extent, but even there the cost of a mistake is enormous. Perhaps this is precisely the reason that four out of five non-Chinese personal Olympic victories were won just on a 10-meter projectile: the Americans Lara Wilkinson and David Budaya won in Sydney and London, and the Australians Chantal Newberry and Matthew Mitchum - in Athens and Beijing ...

For the first time in many years, Russia has pinned certain hopes on the women's tower in Tokyo. The dark horse of the Russian national team is Anna Konanykhina; this season, unexpectedly for many, she became the European champion and won the pre-Olympic selection. It is clear that all the current compliments to the athlete are just an advance, but Konanykhina has her own trump cards: she is technical, light, she has a very difficult program, and most importantly, the entrances to the water are amazingly clean. This is, whatever one may say, the very emphasis that the judges pay most clearly attention to. And most importantly, the amount of points that Anna is able to score with a successful performance of the program allows her to fight for a medal in Tokyo.

The springboard performed by the Russians is the weakest link: in synchronized jumps on this shell, Kristina Ilinykh and Maria Polyakova did not even manage to qualify for the Games. On the other hand, if in other disciplines Russian jumpers use all their chances and rise to the podium, this in itself will become a tremendous success.