The upcoming battles of the skaters for a place in the team tournament captured the fans and the audience close to this sport so much that it's time to digress and try to look a little further, in the second half of February, when representatives of the two most ambitious disciplines in Russian performance will begin to compete in the individual finals - women's singles and pair skating. And having looked in, ask yourself the question: can it turn out in Beijing that in these two types of Russian athletes they will capture the entire podium, and if so, what will they have to pay for it?
To be realistic, one should, of course, moderate appetites somewhat and remember that it is in pair skating, the final event of the entire Olympic figure skating program, that the host country intends to fight for the gold medal.
Will judges help China in this?
The experience of the most successful sports for the country (in particular, diving and artistic gymnastics) suggests that they are excellent at working with judges in China.
And that the country will do everything possible to ensure that no one offends its athletes in this regard.
Does the above mean that gold in pair skating should be said goodbye now?
Absolutely not.
No one is immune from mistakes, including gross ones, once again we all became convinced of this during the European Championship, especially since the level of stress at the Games will be much higher.
Women's singles is a different story. The goal of Eteri Tutberidze, under whose leadership all three of the strongest Russian single skaters are now working, is nothing less than the entire Olympic podium. At first glance, the task does not seem impossible: if Kamila Valieva, Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova arrive in Beijing at the peak of their readiness, it will be almost impossible to compete with them. The recent women's tournament of the European Championship showed that the Russians do not leave their rivals a chance, even if they are not in their best condition. But in Beijing, things can go according to a slightly different scenario, and I will explain why.
Firstly, there is a very high probability that Russia will open the Olympics with a victory in the team tournament. This will mean that all the strongest figure skaters in the country will start their individual competitions already in the rank of champions. In such situations at the Olympics, there are often behind-the-scenes conversations that “we need to share”. Moreover, many parties are interested in this one way or another.
It's no secret, for example, that the main sponsors of the ISU are the Japanese. It is possible that in Beijing the gold from Yuzuru Hanyu will be taken away by the three-time world champion Nathan Chen, and what will you order the Japanese side to do, and the International Skating Union too? To put up with the fact that Russia intends to seize the podium in women's skating? Of course, no one will do this. And where is the guarantee that the judges will not treat the same Valieva extremely strictly, considering that the athlete has already received her gold medal (even if in a team)?
Although the European Championship in Tallinn brought the first adult continental victory to the most talented of the Russian single skaters, taking into account the proximity of the Olympics, it went more to the minus athlete than to the plus.
Firstly, everyone saw that Camila could be grossly mistaken, which means that you can compete with her.
Has Anna Shcherbakova stood on a par with the future champion in the free program with her only quadruple jump, the quality of which can be faulted at any moment?
Secondly, Valieva's arbitrary production is very insidious.
If a fall occurs during the rental (and in Tallinn there was already a place for two), the skater immediately falls out of the musical rhythm, starts skating, as they sometimes say, “across the music”, and Bolero does not forgive such things.
They can “forgive” the judges, but with the same success they can punish.
A similar danger, by the way, was traced in Alina Zagitova's Olympic Don Quixote: Minkus's music required a perfect hit in the accents.
Although it was easier for Alina in Pyeongchang for a purely technical reason: all her jumps were in the second half of the program, and the only minor mistake at the box office (the figure skater failed to perform the Lutz-Rittberger combination in the planned place and moved it to the very end of the performance) on the overall musical impression was not affected.
In Tallinn, Valiyeva was tried as loyally as possible, as well as Shcherbakov and Trusova.
But the Russian side has no guarantee that the same will be tried in Beijing.
How big can Trusova's Olympic chances be? Theoretically, with her set of jumps, Sasha is able to get ahead of anyone and even more so be much more competitive than Shcherbakova. But here, perhaps, one of the biggest mysteries of the upcoming Games lies, and not at all because the Russian Rocket, by all means, is eager to perform at least four quadruple jumps in one program. For such content, the athlete’s program is not very well arranged: after Trusova’s quadruple flip and salchow, it would be good to take a breath and at least have a little rest, but then there is a cascade with an axel and another quadruple - a sheepskin coat. In Tallinn, this jump failed for the athlete, and, it seems, just because of fatigue - in order not to fall on landing, there was not enough height.
For such an arrangement of jumps, you need to be in perfect shape (including in terms of weight), but Sasha looked heavy at the European Championships.
And in general, training rentals convinced the audience that the form of all three Russian girls had slightly, but noticeably, declined.
If this is the case, the coaches will have to throw all their efforts into stopping the process and returning the conditions to Beijing.
This will not be easy to do.
On the other hand, Valieva in any condition remains the main, not to say unconditional, favorite of the Games.
After all, the maximum that all her rivals, including compatriots, can count on is to be ready to use their chance if Camila gives them one.
For her, the main thing is not even to compete, not to look around.
Just do what she can.