Last weekend, Norwood and Moscow hosted the first stages of the Grand Prix in figure skating under the auspices of the FIS, to which domestic athletes are not allowed, and the Russian Grand Prix.

Comparing only the results on both sides of the ocean is meaningless, if only because the Russian judges in relation to their own favorites staged an attraction of unprecedented generosity.

In the short program, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov scored 86.08 points and surpassed the flawless Olympic performance of the Beijing Games champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.

Mikhail Kolyada was awarded with outrageous marks for understanding in the short program, which the skater skated with a cascade, which even junior girls do not jump at the present time.

In the arbitrary part of the competition, they did not skimp on Kamila Valieva, and even Annabel Morozov and David Narizhny, who made their debut after only a few months of joint experience, finished the competition with a result that would allow them to enter the top six at the last world championship.

If the Russian Figure Skating Federation was trying to show in this way how good things are in the entrusted economy, it miscalculated.

The effect turned out to be exactly the opposite: the tournament, which was objectively quite good in many respects, was turned into a Potemkin village through the efforts of the referees.

The work of ISU referees at Skate America looks much closer to reality in this regard.

But, apart from the numbers, the virtual duel between Russia and the "rest of the world" makes it possible to build some kind of unofficial rating.

So let's open an account.

Lack of healthy competition

The September skates of Russian skaters left the feeling that with their current line-up they are able to close any number of tournaments and each of the starts will certainly be no less interesting than any of the stages of the ISU Grand Prix.

But the very first tournament of the Russian series showed that this is not entirely true.

Having mistakenly written in the preview for the tournament that in the category of sports couples at the Golden Skate of Moscow a duel between Tarasova - Morozov and ex-world champions Anastasia Mishina - Alexander Gallyamov is expected, I actually wished for reality.

Already on the first day of the competition, it became obvious that individual stars are not able to maintain intrigue, no matter how cool the athletes ride.

Moreover, cool skaters in October do not happen very systematically for skaters.

But the same problem also affected the Skate America tournament in Norwood.

In all sports, in addition to pair skating, there were stars: the first performer of the quadruple axel, Ilya Malinin, world champion Kaori Sakamoto, and the oldest of American dance couples, Madison Chock - Evan Bates.

But as they say, it always takes two to tango.

Together with the Russian participants, the nerve has largely gone from the Grand Prix tournaments, and the competition has turned into a rather insipid action.

But belatedly, the understanding came that an elementary organizational technique could solve the problem both inside Russia and outside it.

To do this, it was necessary to return to the long-forgotten old and provide athletes with the opportunity to perform not in two, but at least in three stages.

A similar format in figure skating already existed, and not only in Russia, but also in the Grand Prix, which Alexei Tikhonov, the 2000 world champion in pair skating, recalled in Megasport.

He noted with a laugh that two stages were given to the skaters in order to win test points, and the third - to interfere with rivals.

But that only added to the intensity of the competition. 

Malinin and quadruple jumps

The main troublemaker, Ilya Malinin, won his first adult victory in the Grand Prix series at Norwood, performing five quadruple jumps in a free program, including a very high-quality quadruple Axel, which Yuzuru Hanyu had been unsuccessfully chasing for years.

The achievement should, of course, be considered historical, which is why it is Malinin who leads the current men's rating.

Does this victory mean that Ilya will now take over the entire world of single skating?

Is not a fact.

At one time, Kevin Reynolds was called a revolutionary in the field of quadruple jumps: the Canadian became the first figure skater in the world to risk including two quadruples in the short program and three in the free program.

Once Kevin coped with this set, thanks to which he bypassed the future two-time Olympic champion Hanyu at the Four Continents Championships in 2013.

But there, the Japanese, unlike Reynolds, was far from his best condition: in the short program, he made a single lutz instead of a triple, and in the free program he performed a “butterfly” instead of a quadruple salchow and another one on a lutz in the second half of the program.

Moreover, even with such a rental, the Japanese lost to Reynolds by only 13.48 points.

That victory in the biography of the Canadian remained single: in order to fight for solid awards, jumping qualities were frankly lacking.

And by and large there were no others.

Malinin is more expressive, but, despite the jumping uniqueness, the American's skating is still boyish, not masculine.

His only trump card is jumping.

In this regard, the short program in Norwood became very clear: Ilya announced quad lutz (in a cascade) and a sheepskin coat, did not cope with the second jump and flew to the fourth position, including in the evaluation for the components.

In terms of the composition of the participants, the Moscow tournament could well compete with the American one, but, unfortunately, in Megasport, the three leaders of the Russian team - Dmitry Aliev, Mikhail Kolyada and Alexander Samarin - did not have a single clean rental.

Akatyeva's mental victory over Valieva

The choice of a contender for the first ranking position before the start of the competition seemed quite obvious: Kamila Valieva from the Russian side and world champion Kaori Sakamoto from overseas.

In fact, both in person and in absentia were surpassed by Sofia Akatieva, who opened her first adult season.

In the overall standings, she lost to Valieva, but the championship points here are rather arbitrary: in reality, Kamila lost to the young ward of her own coach in several ways at once.

Both programs of Akatieva were perceived as so much more interesting in terms of production, as if it was for her, and not for Valieva, that the coaching staff tried on the mantle of prima before the start of the season.

Technically, Sofya countered the only (with a rough fall) quadruple sheepskin coat of her rival with a triple axel and two quadruple jumps and at the same time did not yield to Camila at all in terms of skating and presentation.

In terms of the ease of execution of the elements, it also looked much more convincing.

There is absolutely no need to talk about the virtual duel of a young Russian woman with Sakamoto: the Japanese woman worked at Norwood to the highest possible standard of quality, but according to the technical set of jumps that are quite simple for today, she is perceived as a person from a past life.

This should absolutely not be an obstacle for Sakamoto to continue to win in the Grand Prix, but not in our rankings.

The disaster of the Olympic medalists

Tarasova and Morozov lost the free program to debutants of the season Natalya Khabibullina and Ilya Knyazhuk, they lost catastrophically, and this is not a figure of speech.

When athletes begin to make so many mistakes that are completely uncharacteristic for themselves (Mikhail Kolyada made exactly the same performance in the men's tournament), this is not a defeat, but a real disaster, misfortune, an accident.

In the overall standings, the vice-champions of the Olympic Games also remained second, but this does not at all negate the fact that at the moment, in terms of their skating class, Zhenya and Vladimir represent a league inaccessible to most rivals.

I would call the Ave Maria short program in a very interesting musical arrangement one of the two absolutely best programs of the Russian tournament (about the second later).

Compliments to the Olympic free Tarasova - Morozov have already been repeatedly voiced, so we can do without repetition.

Although, if the skaters had more time to enter the season, perhaps they should have changed the second program as well.

The explanation here is simple: the position of the first is always very binding.

A very correct strategy in this regard is taken by Russian synchronized swimming coaches, whose wards have not suffered a single defeat at the Olympic Games since 2000.

In the understanding of synchronized swimmers, exploiting already worked out ideas is a recognition of weakness and, accordingly, a step back.

And the leader simply should not allow himself this without extreme need.

The rating of sports couples is a category where Russia can obviously record victories in all upcoming tournaments of the series.

Comparing the level of domestic duets with those who will perform in the international Grand Prix is ​​so pointless that it is just right to remove this type from the program altogether so as not to cause irreparable damage to the international image.

But seriously, I believe that none of the current foreign couples would have made it into the top three not only in the adult Grand Prix of Russia, but also in the junior one.

The emergence of new dance duets


If before the start of the "Golden Skate of Moscow" the performances of the dancers did not cause awe, then after - on the contrary.

We can safely say that Russia at the adult level has two new duets at once, for which it would not be a shame at any of the international tournaments.

And this despite the fact that both pairs do not really have any serious joint experience: Annabel Morozov - David Narizhny united only in the spring, and Vasilisa Kaganovskaya - Valery Angelopol have been skating together for three years, but have never competed in the adult category.

In the final protocol, they are located in the above sequence, but the performance of the free dance by Angelica Krylova's students has become more impressive.

If Vasilisa and Valery had shown their dance to the music of Vangelis in a less chamber setting (read - outside the country), he would certainly have been included in the list of the best productions of the season: Krylova managed to find the perfect pair and completely unhackneyed music and "wrap" it with unique author's supports and many other finds.

So the debutants can be safely put a fat plus: in a virtual comparison with those who rode across the ocean, they rolled over very, very many.

Given modern rules, dancers in general rarely manage to present a choreographic masterpiece to the world.

Such, for example, was last year's "La Bayadère" by the Japanese Kana Muramoto and ex-world champion in single skating Daisuke Takahashi.

The ballet dance of the couple became a source of pride for the coach and director Marina Zueva, but the skaters let us down with the performance: they lost to the country's second duet, failed to go to the Olympics, and showed only the 16th result at the World Championships.

In Norwood Muramoto - Takahashi seemed to have to attract attention, but in technical terms, they have already habitually lost the difficulty levels - they remained sixth.  

The main protagonists of the American tournament were Caitlin Gavayek - Jean-Luc Baker, who won the free skate against the centenarians of the star-striped dance floor Madison Chock - Evan Bates, who, it seems, were greatly bled by the Olympics.

The overall victory went to the more experienced duet, mostly due to the length of service: the technical score of Hawaiian-Baker turned out to be higher in both dances.

So, this couple earned its rating “plus”, as opposed to the Russian one, honestly.