Oiled premiere: how a series of blunders darkened Trusova's performance at a tournament in the USA

At the start of the new season, Alexandra Trusova became, perhaps, the most discussed domestic figure skater.

On September 12, at the skates of the Russian national team in Chelyabinsk, she was the first in history to cleanly perform five quads in a free program, and also showed an interesting short skating in the image of Frida Kahlo.

After such a start, the fans expected the athlete to "continue the banquet" in the international arena.

The US International Classic was chosen as the first test of the pen in the framework of the official competition, which took place less than a week after the hire of the national team.

This tournament seemed to be the perfect opportunity to perform both programs superbly again and gain an extra boost of self-confidence.

In Norwood, the World Championship medalist was considered the main star and had no real competition.

A number of young local skaters and the Korean girl Yongjong Park simply did not have the opportunity to compete with the favorite.

Therefore, they expected from Trusova not only a confident victory, but also an update of the world record, at least in an arbitrary.

Alas, the already short program has shown that Eteri Tutberidze's ward does not look as convincing overseas as in Chelyabinsk.

She was again let down by the triple axel.

Alexandra twisted it, but fell.

In the framework of official competitions, she has never cleanly made this element.

The rest of the Russian woman did not make mistakes and received a high mark from the judges - 74.75.

Surprisingly, she was only 0.2 points short of her personal best.

Park is more than three points behind, and the rest are even more serious.

But with much more interest, everyone, for obvious reasons, was waiting for the free program.

Alas, she also did not bring satisfaction to either the athlete, or the coaches, or the personal fans of Trusova.

For her, things did not go according to plan from the very beginning.

The Russian woman fell from the very first quad - a quadruple flip.

After such a blot, she could not get together.

Alexandra cleanly performed a quadruple salchow and a double axel cascade - a triple sheepskin coat, but immediately allowed a "butterfly" on the sheepskin coat, making only a double.

The athlete did not tighten the solo quadruple lutz and touched the ice.

Finally, the cascade of the quadruple lutz - oiler - triple salchow also turned out to be under-rotated.

The result is one out of five ultra-si elements successfully completed.

To say that Trusova was upset is to say nothing.

After finishing the program, she rolled dejectedly onto the bench.

True, then she had to return to the ice to collect soft toys thrown to her by fans.

In general, the local fans received her very warmly, despite the mistakes.

Tutberidze was also upset, who immediately began to talk with the ward.

Both were not in the best mood for the ratings.

However, the referees again gave the Russian woman a relatively high mark - 142.05.

This allowed her to win the final victory by more than four points over Park.

But for the first time in history, it was not possible to demonstrate five quads in an arbitrary in the framework of official competitions.

Trusova again proved herself to be the "queen of training", which is not always able to transfer the ideal skating to tournaments.

However, she herself tried to treat what happened without unnecessary emotions and stressed that this was only the beginning.

“The long-awaited season is open!

And let the rental turn out with mistakes ... I really want to say thank you to everyone who patiently helps me to go to the goal.

And, of course, many thanks to my fans!

I know for sure that you are there, even when I'm on the other side of the world, ”wrote Trusova on Instagram.

Her performance in the United States left an ambiguous impression on Russian experts.

So, the legendary coach Tatyana Tarasova, after the skater's mistake in the short program, noted that she could not like such a rental, expressing the opinion that a young Russian woman could skate much better.

“Trusova skates very well.

This is a plus to the fact that she jumps beautifully.

But I may not like the performance where the person fell.

Do you understand?

Yes, good skating, Sasha began to spin better.

But Trusova is the skater who must do everything.

And I want her to do everything.

She can do it ”, - quotes the words of the specialist“ Sport-Express ”.

In turn, Olympic champion Natalya Bestemyanova linked the athlete's failure with acclimatization.

According to her, even such a rental showed that Tutberidze's ward is in excellent shape.

“Fantastic cascade lutz - oiler - triple salchow, although, of course, there was a mistake on the road.

But the very fact of such a cascade is impressive.

A very good quadruple salchow, sorry, I fell off the flip.

An absolutely unnecessary fall.

The rental turned out to be not as enchanting as in Chelyabinsk, but still brought her a large amount of points.

Could this affect her self-confidence?

Trusova is not a young, novice athlete, she understands that this is an accumulated experience ", - quotes Bestemyanova" Championship ".

At the same time, the Olympic champion admitted that she was worried about Trusova's regular falls from the triple axel in the short program, and suggested that on the eve of the Olympic Games this element could be removed altogether.

But the world champion Maria Butyrskaya, on the contrary, believes that Alexandra needs to continue to do it, and sooner or later the element will definitely work out.

“Maybe this is not her favorite jump - in the skates that I saw, she performed it uncleanly.

But with five quads, she will do a triple axel too.

Now let him train, there is time.

The main starts are ahead, then the Olympics.

She will always have time to remove the triple axel, but she will no longer train the possibilities.

Therefore, it is impossible to stop in any case, you need to take risks and go further on this jump.

Alexandra has a huge margin in the free program compared to other athletes, so she should calmly go out and try.

Then it will definitely work out, ”the Sport24 expert quotes.

Finally, the silver medalist of the 2012 World Cup Alena Leonova also linked the problems of the Russian woman with the difficult flight and acclimatization and urged the fans not to take the results of this not the most important tournament too seriously.

"It's OK. The main starts are still ahead. Trusova will draw conclusions and prepare. I do not think that what happened can affect Sasha's confidence. Better to let this happen at this tournament than at a more important one. You need to approach everything at the maximum and before the very start to understand what you will do in the competition, and what is not needed yet. The element can always be removed. Lowering the bar is not very good, ”Leonova stressed.