The flight Moscow - Riga - Tallinn on January 11 could well be considered a branch of the European Championship in airspace: the main forces of the Russian national team - Kamila Valieva, Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova - were sent to the capital of Estonia. The dances were presented by Russian and Hungarian duets Irina Zhuk and Alexander Svinin and German - Angelica Krylova. On the same flight, the two main leaders of the Russian Figure Skating Federation preferred to get to the starting point: its president, Alexander Gorshkov, and general director, Alexander Kogan.
And already at this stage it could be said that the upcoming championship differs from last year's world championship in Stockholm for the better: a year ago, the skaters were categorically prohibited from any accompanying persons, now their mothers flew to Tallinn with the Russian singles. Sasha Trusova is also a dog.
12 years ago, the capital of Estonia has already hosted the continental championship.
It is unlikely that anyone will remember the competitions so long ago, although in fact that tournament was almost the most significant start of the Olympic cycle: after a break of three and a half years, Evgeni Plushenko returned to the ice and won the crown of the strongest skater of the continent for the sixth time.
If you wish, you can see some symbolism: in 2010, three weeks before the Olympic Games in Vancouver, Plushenko himself and his mentor became the main newsmakers of the competition. Now Alexey Mishin brought Evgeny Semenenko to Tallinn, who will defend the right to fly to the Games in Beijing, while the second ward of the outstanding coach, Mikhail Kolyada, has already drawn his lucky ticket.
But all the parallels can be ended here.
After all, the current situation in fact does not in any way resemble the one overgrown with the past.
And the point here is not at all that the first championship was held at the rather ordinary-looking arena "Saku Suurhall", and the current one - at the best ice stadium of the republic, "Tondiraba".
Plushenko just returned with a very specific goal: to sweep the rivals in the corners and take the throne, which in his absence Stephane Lambiel and Brian Joubert somehow vaguely claimed.
This intention was striking from the first second of appearance on the ice and was crowned with triumph and a rather mocking post-victory comment of the athlete: “I am satisfied.
Defeated opponents who trained hard for all three and a half years while I was resting ... "
Is at least one of the current Russian singles skaters capable of demonstrating such "impudence of a move"? Alas ... Even the most experienced Mikhail Kolyada, who refused to participate in the European Championship due to an insignificant (official version) leg injury, looks in the context of the pre-Olympic start as a person who thought for the best not to be compared with anyone else. ... And it is even more unclear how those who have not yet had the experience of such competitions - Mark Kondratyuk, Semenenko and Andrey Mozalev - will behave in a European fight.
Tallinn 2010 was a championship of surprises. It was then, albeit in a different arena, that Tamara Moskvina first became champions Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov, leaving behind the three-time European champions Alyona Savchenko and Robin Shelkov. Now there are no one or the other on the ice, Moskvin is still at the side, and we mentally figure out which of the two pairs of an outstanding coach will be higher on the podium - European champions Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky, or world crown holders Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov?
In ice dancing 12 years ago there was a castling: Yana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitsky came in the status of reigning champions, but ... remained the third.
And the gold was taken away by Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, and the partner fought for that victory a few days after a difficult knee surgery: a special orthopedic structure was even built for the sore leg, which held the joint, not allowing it to go to the side.
There is a lot of talk now about the prospect of a possible castling between world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov (also injured) and European vice-champions Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, and how can one not mentally draw a parallel with that almost forgotten tournament again?
Moreover, the Italians are again rivals for the Russians.
In 2010 - Federica Fayella and Massimo Scali, this time - Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri.
The only type of program where absolutely everything has changed in 12 years is women's single skating. At that long-standing championship, Russian girls were not on the podium at all, the best, with the seventh result, was Alena Leonova, and we all took it for granted. Now it will be extremely surprising if any of the foreign athletes can beat the Russian troika.
Although the current championship certainly has its own non-Russian favorite. This is Luna Hendrix - the only one of the remaining participants who in the season got close to 220 points on the sum of two programs. Eva-Lotta Kiibus will also attract attention. The ward of the well-known coach Anna Lewandi at the home championship is deliberately destined for a considerable share of enthusiasm - she is idolized in Estonia. And for the nasavnitsa herself, the championship in Tallinn is special: the youngest son, Arlet, will make his debut at this tournament.
And finally, an interesting detail: thanks to the refusal to participate in the European championship of four-time world champions in ice dancing Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron, Russian skaters were given a chance to write down a completely unique achievement: not just becoming European champions in all four categories, which is already happened in 2006 and 2020, but also to win absolutely all medals.
Not entirely decent, of course, but how beautiful it would be!