When Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov skated their free dance at the World Championships in Stockholm in an absolutely outstanding way, the well-known figure skater and now choreographer and director Ilya Averbukh, commenting on what he saw, urged not to select epithets, but simply to shout bravo.
“It was as if they lifted us to another planet, where the perfection of beauty, where the soul freezes, where every word is about love. We haven't won the world championship for 12 years. Last year, the guys already began to beat the French - at the European Championship, but then the main tournament was canceled. Yes, the French duo did not come to Sweden, and next year there will be a very serious fight. But the guys became world champions by right. Bravo, Alexander Zhulin. He has done a gigantic job. His charges went through hardships. And they keep going, because the main start next season is the Olympics, ”the vice-champion of the Salt Lake City Games did not hide his delight.
Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin remained fifth at that tournament.
Was it fair?
Do not know.
Rather, it very organically fit into the old scheme, which was born in very old Soviet times.
Then everyone, one way or another involved in ice dancing, knew: almost always you have to pay for the success of the first pair, sacrificing more often the third, but sometimes the second duet.
I admit that this scheme was not used in Stockholm, but it is quite obvious that this particular tournament drew a hard line between the first Russian pair and the second, although a year before that the strength of the duets seemed to be relatively equal.
In the above, in fact, lies the answer to the question of why, with an absolutely amazing free dance and an impeccable and very inspired performance of it in Turin, Stepanova and Bukin remained third, letting the Americans Madison Hubbel and Zachary Donoghue go ahead.
Technically and performing the Russian duo were in no way inferior to the vice-champions of the world, and in staging and expressiveness they frankly surpassed them.
It's just that in such confrontations in the brain of the judges, a switch automatically clicks, adding tenths and hundredths of a point, not for performance - for rating.
You can, of course, write off the voiced opinion on emotions, but this is not the main thing.
And the fact is that in the Olympic season the coaching laboratory of Alexander Svinin, Irina Zhuk and those specialists involved in the training put Stepanova and Bukin in the most powerful dance that the duo has ever had before.
Among the free performances shown in Turin, "Romeo and Juliet" by Russians sounded no less powerful than the rhythm dance of the legendary French Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron.
It is clear that more was said about the French in Turin.
In fact, the entire press conference was dedicated to their unique rhythm dance in street waacking style, unusual for figure skating.
Gabriela and Guillaume excitedly told how happy their coach Marie-France Dubreuil became interested in this unusual style of the 1970s, that she also found a choreographer with whom the skaters worked on the floor for two weeks from morning till night, in order to transfer all movements to the ice. (by the way, the French changed their dance, or rather its central part, just at the insistence of the choreographer), and finally, that waacking is ideal for ice, since it is in the hands and body and does not at all limit the skater in footwork and in skating as such.
Madison Hubbel cried at that press conference.
She said that her biggest dream over the years was to win the world championship and an Olympic gold medal.
And it is very painful and bitter to admit that this will never happen.
With these words, the American woman actually relayed the thought: while Papadakis and Sizeron are skating like they did in Turin, only a madman can dream of victories.
Isn't it a paradox?
The title of the reigning world and European champions belongs to Sinitsina and Katsalapov, and the world continues to speak in superlatives about the French, not admitting the thought that the legendary duo can be competed with.
It is clear that Nikita and Vika are desperately unlucky in that their partner cannot cope with a back injury, which is why several scheduled starts were missed, but is that the only thing?
Perhaps the reason for the secondary perception of Russian champions is that for too long both they themselves and their coach Alexander Zhulin were obsessed with the goal of first approaching Papadakis and Sizeron, and then getting ahead of them.
And when the desired finally came true (at the European Championships in Graz - due to a rather gross mistake by the French, and in Stockholm - due to their absence), internal confusion could ensue: and then what to do?
The psychological paradox of rivalry with an unattainable leader was very accurately described in her interview by the famous Russian skier Yulia Stupak, when she was asked about the legendary Teresa Johaug, who has been burning out the glade of cross-country skiing over the past several years.
Instead of starting to talk about the completely obvious superiority of the Norwegian over the rest, Yulia snapped.
“I don't really like to hear that each of us wants to beat Teresa, beat Teresa, beat Teresa. Yes, it's cool, but too narrow in my understanding. When you become so obsessed with one single opponent, it is very limiting. Not to mention that the very idea of becoming better than someone, as it were, initially implies that you are worse, ”the Russian woman explained.
These words are applicable to all spheres of human activity without exception. The strength of Papadakis and Sizeron is not in titles and not in the breathtaking natural plasticity of a partner. And in that obsession with which four-time world champions continue to break through the walls of their own capabilities, not too puzzled by the thought of what their rivals think of them. If you wanted to change the music, you changed it. Shorten your skirt? Easy! And even if for the sake of the next image, both need to go out on the ice in ballet leotards that imitate naked bodies, Gabriela and Guillaume will probably do it without hesitation. Perhaps with some discount on the rules framework. Because at the current historical turn, they are the trendsetters and behave accordingly. That is why it is extremely difficult to oppose them with something.
However, Sinitsina and Katsalapov still have the opportunity to disagree with this: the first start of the season for the Russian pair will take place next week in Tokyo.