Anna Shcherbakova

Pupil Eteri Tutberidze became the only Russian athlete who won the gold of the 2022 Games in her personal form.

The beginning of the Olympic season was not very successful for Anna Shcherbakova.

She did not have a short program to the music of Kirill Richter The Songs of Distant Earth, and after the first stage of the ISU Grand Prix series for her in Turin, it was decided to change the production.

Anna entered the next tournament in Grenoble with a new program - to the composition of Inon Zur Dangerous Affairs.

With the free program, too, not everything was smooth, periodically there were problems with jumps, and as a result, at the December national championship, Shcherbakova took only third place, losing to Alexandra Trusova and Kamila Valieva.

However, Anna managed to reverse the negative trend and approach the main start of her life fully armed.

Her main trump card in Beijing was psychological stability.

The 17-year-old figure skater did not flinch under the pressure that was exerted on the Russian team in connection with the doping scandal, and demonstrated the purest performances of both programs.

Anna, for well-known reasons, missed the 2022 World Championships, and in the fall she underwent knee surgery, which she postponed due to the Olympics.

At the same time, the athlete did not force a return to the ice and focused on new areas of activity.

The champion became the host of the popular TV show Ice Age, and it turned out that in this role she looks as organic as possible.

So much so that soon after the debut, she was invited to host the New Year's Eve show on Channel One.

It is not known whether the skater will return to sports or repeat the fate of the two previous champions of the Games, who failed to revive their careers, but one thing is clear: no matter what business Shcherbakova undertakes, she tries to do it in the best possible way.

Natalya Nepryaeva

Another heroine of the Beijing Olympics was the skier Natalya Nepryaeva, who was able to win three medals there, one of each value.

It was the ward of Yuri Borodavko who brought the Russian team the first medal at the Games, taking second place in the skiathlon.

Nepryaeva, being the leader of the overall World Cup standings, was considered one of the favorites of the race, but she could not cope with the high pace proposed by the eminent Norwegian Teresa Johaug.

In the fight for silver, the Russian woman clashed with the Austrian Teresa Stadlober and won in the finish line: the girls were separated by 0.3 seconds.

After that, Nepryaeva stopped a step away from the podium in the 10 km race from a separate start, and in the sprint she took only 14th place.

But these failures were more than offset by gold in the relay, which was won together with teammates Yulia Stupak, Tatyana Sorina and Veronika Stepanova.

This victory is the first for the Russian team since the distant 2006 Turin Games.

Toward the end of the Games, Nepryaeva received the bronze of the team sprint, in which she performed with Stupak.

In addition to the Olympic awards, in 2022 Natalia has two prestigious achievements.

A month before the Games, she became the first skier from Russia to win the overall standings of the prestigious Tour de Ski multi-day race, and at the end of the season, the Russian woman received the Big Crystal Globe of the World Cup, despite the fact that she was forced to miss the final stages due to sanctions against Russian sports.

The last time victory in the overall standings of the Russian KM was brought by Yulia Chepalova in 2001.

Veronika Kudermetova

Tennis in 2022 became one of the few sports where Russians could fully compete at the international level.

The only exception was Wimbledon, the organizers of which did not allow domestic tennis players to participate, for which they paid, however, with the loss of rating points.

A real breakthrough under these conditions was made by 25-year-old Veronika Kudermetova.

In singles, she started the season in 31st place in the world rankings, and finished already in ninth place.

Only a misfire in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Guadalajara did not allow the tennis player to qualify for the Final Championship among singles.

In addition, for the first time in her career, the Russian woman reached the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament - Rolland Garros, and also reached the fourth round of the US Open.

Kudermetova achieved even greater success in doubles, speaking with Elise Mertens.

The duet with the Belgian was formed by the Russian woman at the end of 2021, and at the start of the current girl, they immediately reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, where they lost to the long-term leaders of the tour, the Czechs Barbora Kreychikova and Katerzhina Sinyakova.

They then went on to win the Dubai tournament and also played in several finals.

At Rolland Garros, the Russian woman and the Belgian reached the fourth round, which allowed Kudermetova to climb to second place in the world doubles ranking.

And at the end of the season, the girls won the WTA Final Tournament, defeating the same Kreychikova and Sinyakova in the final match.

It is noteworthy that the representative of Russia became the owner of this prestigious trophy for the first time in six years.

The last victory of Russian tennis players at the Final Championship dates back to 2016: then Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova became triumphant in pairs.

Angelica Sidorova and Maria Lasitskene

The two main stars of Russian athletics once again confirmed their status, although they were deprived of the opportunity to perform at the leading tournaments of the year - the winter world championship in Belgrade, as well as the summer one in Eugene.

World Athletics suspended domestic athletes from participation in all international tournaments held under its auspices on March 1 - less than three weeks before the start of the 2022 World Cup in the premises.

At that time, Anzhelika Sidorova was the owner of the best result of the season - at a tournament in France, she overcame the bar at a height of 4.87 m. The second line of the top list, by the way, was occupied by another Russian woman, Polina Knoroz, with a result of 4.81 m. And American Sandy Morris won in Belgrade with 4.80.

The ward of Svetlana Abramova started summer tournaments later than usual: for the first time, Angelika entered the sector on June 24, and less than a month later, at the Moscow Championship, she set the best result of the season in the world - 4.86 m. It can be said with a high degree of certainty that with such a jump, the Russian woman would become the world champion if she spoke at the same time at the tournament in Eugene.

The final at Shestovichek there was held just two days earlier, and the American Cathy Nageotte, who jumped a centimeter lower, received the gold.

Sidorova confirmed her phenomenal form at the Russian Championship, flying already at 4.91 m and thus setting a record for national championships.

No one else in the world jumped higher this summer. 

Maria Lasitskene spent both the winter and summer seasons more modestly, but it is known that the pupil of Gennady Gabrielyan conducts secondary competitions in a training mode, gradually bringing the peak of her form to the main start.

Nevertheless, the Tokyo Olympic champion won almost all the tournaments in which she participated in the summer, with the exception of the Jumping Day in Moscow, where she stopped at a modest height of 1.85 m and became the third.

Maria admitted more than once during the season that for better results she lacks intense competition and the feeling of trembling knees.

Lasitskene managed to overcome herself twice: at the Russian Championship she took the grandmaster 2 m, and at the Spartakiad she improved this result by another centimeter.

This would allow her to fight at the World Cup for at least a place on the podium.

In Eugene, Australia's Eleanor Patterson took gold with a national record of 2.02m, while Ukraine's Yaroslava Maguchyh came second with the same result.