Faster than anyone: how Davis and Smolkin progressed against the background of other Russian dance couples

The progress of the Russian duo Diana Davis - Gleb Smolkin has become one of the most talked about ice dancing events.

From a couple who were content with modest successes at the junior level and were known due to the fact that the partner's mother is Eteri Tutberidze, they suddenly turned into troublemakers, eager to become the elite.

This was largely due to the sensational performance at the Warsaw Cup, where Davis and Smolkin scored 199.90 points - a very high result for ice dancing.

Suffice it to say that at the official starts recognized by the ISU, only seven duos have scored more this season.

Many successful couples, regularly participating in the World and European Championships, did not impress the judges as much as the young Russians did.

Davis and Smolkin are ranked 11th in the world in terms of average scores received at ISU tournaments. They took fifth place at the Canadian Grand Prix stage, which can also be attributed to the category of achievements, if you remember what the couple's path to it was. In 2020, the Russians finished fifth at the junior world championship with a modest 165.22 points. They almost did not perform in the next season, limiting themselves only to the final of the Cup of the country, where they were waiting for a victory with 186.38 points. And after that - a sharp rise and the status of the third pair of Russia.

Almost none of the other dance duets had such a leap, which is clearly confirmed by statistics.

We analyzed how the adult career began not only among the leading couples of the country, but also among those who at one time were quoted at the level of Davis and Smolkin or even lower.

To do this, we studied the results of the first two seasons after retiring from juniors or forming a pair.

Victoria Sinitsina - Nikita Katsalapov

The duet of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov was formed after the Winter Olympics in Sochi, in which they both participated with other partners.

Katsalapov took third place in the individual tournament and won gold with Elena Ilinykh, while Sinitsina finished 16th with Ruslan Zhiganshin.

Both of them were at that time well known to the fans and judges, and great success could be expected from the new pair.

They really were, but far from immediately.

The future world and European champions began their joint careers with seemingly disastrous results - fourth place at the Grand Prix stage in Russia (147.55) and seventh in Japan (122.31).

With such points, Sinitsina and Katsalapov would have lost even to the junior world champions of that season, Anna Yanovskaya and Sergei Mozgov.

In the second year of cooperation, the couple returned to the Russian national team and received about the same status that Davis and Smolkin now have, although they had much more experience of performing at the highest level behind them.

However, even taking into account their past merits, the Sinitsina and Katsalapov made less progress.

Alexandra Stepanova - Ivan Bukin 

Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin also had a powerful foothold.

In 2013, they ended their brilliant junior career with a victory at the World Championship, leaving Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron with silver.

But their debut in the Grand Prix series turned out to be unimportant - in Canada, the young duo became only eighth with such a low total of points, which had not been in their career for a long time.

However, the second season of Stepanova and Bukin just turned out to be a breakthrough one.

The first medal at the Grand Prix stage, bronze at the Russian Championship and even third place at the European Championship - this was a reality for the still young couple.

At the planetary championship, they even scored the best points in the national team for an arbitrary dance, although they lost significantly to Papadakis and Sizeron, whose takeoff was even more rapid.

Stepanova and Bukin are a clear example of how quickly a dance duet can reach a high level.

However, with Davis and Smolkin, their case still has little in common.

Firstly, the personal record of Stepanova and Bukin in two years grew by only 10 points, and not almost 35. Secondly, they made a name for themselves as juniors.

In addition, do not forget that the further development of the dancers did not go so sharply - it took them three more years to return to the European podium, and even more to confidently enter the top eight in the world.

They became champions of the country only in 2020.

Tiffany Zagorski - Jonathan Gurreiro

Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gurreiro began skating alongside the 2014/15 season.

The first two years after the formation of the pair, they attracted attention mainly by their unusual names for Russian fans.

They had some successes in domestic starts and victories in minor international tournaments, but at the national championships they took fifth place twice.

Compared to Davis and Smolkin, Zagorski and Gurreiro grew rather slowly.

Only in their third joint season did they deserve participation in the Grand Prix, and 2018 became a breakthrough year, when they got to Pyeongchang instead of Stepanova and Bukin, who were not allowed to compete.

Alexandra Skoptsova - Kirill Aleshin

Alexandra Skoptsova and Kirill Alyoshin had a chance to repeat the path taken by Stepanova and Bukin.

They also slammed the door loudly in 2018 when they said goodbye to junior skating and won all tournaments, including the world championship.

But then the young Russians did not manage to immediately break into the elite.

In the first two years at the senior level, they never made it to the top six at the Grand Prix stages, although they had four chances for this.

At the beginning of the new Olympic cycle, Skoptsova and Alyoshin were also only fifth in the Russian championships.

To this day, the duo's personal record is lower than that of Davis and Smolkin, although he has much more experience and titles.

Sophia Shevchenko - Igor Eremenko

Sophia Shevchenko and Igor Eremenko missed Davis and Smolkin quite a bit.

They "graduated" from junior skating a year earlier, having won bronze medals of the world championship.

But just like most other young dancers, they still cannot boast of authority among the judges and fans.

The pandemic is partly to blame for this - their second year at the adult level fell on a time when it was possible to perform only at home starts.

But even on them, taking into account the "inflation" inherent in such tournaments, Shevchenko and Eremenko only once approached the mark of 200 points - at the First Channel Cup.

Naturally, it is impossible to compare this result with Davis and Smolkin, but this duo also did not achieve more significant success in two seasons.

Suffice it to recall that at the Japanese Grand Prix a month ago they were the last with a total of 160.13 points.

Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva - Egor Bazin

Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Yegor Bazin teamed up after the 2019/20 season, that is, they are now spending a second season together.

And despite the fact that the partner achieved high success at the junior level with Nikita Nazarov, and he was a member of the Russian national team with Sofia Evdokimova, together they have not yet made significant progress.

The duo of youth and experience this year raised their personal best to 186.80 points, but these are not at all the numbers with which you can count on a lot in the Olympic season.

Khudaiberdieva and Bazin only added to the list of couples that Davis and Smolkin left behind during the reporting period.