Ephemeral happiness: why Kostornaya's transition to pair skating is promising, but so far only on paper

The soul of a fan, and a journalist too, always demands fairy tales, stories with a happy ending.

For example, about an athlete who alone courageously struggled through thorns, overcame obstacles, then met an equally lonely soul mate along the way and triumphantly returned to the podium.

Can the story of European champion Alena Kostornaya, whose transition to pair skating has already been almost officially announced, become such a plot?

It is possible that yes, although, in my opinion, it is somewhat premature to talk about the new role of Kostornaya as a fait accompli.

Alyona and her partner Georgy Kunitsa (skated in Tamara Moskvina's club with Evgeny Tumanova, but not for long) performed together this winter with double numbers in ice shows, trained between performances in CSKA and, according to those who saw these trainings, it was hard not to attention to how easy it is for Kostornaya to pair elements and how well she looks in the role of a male physique.

Such partners are usually referred to as “comfortable”, implying external compactness and lightness, but at the same time strength, sharpness and good jumping and choreographic skills.

Kostornaya, of course, has all this, it is no coincidence that the athlete is still remembered as the most choreographic and charismatic single skater of recent years, but one very insidious pitfall cannot be ignored.

It consists in the fact that from a motor point of view, Alena is incredibly talented.

New elements are easily given to her, and in such cases, the athlete invariably gets the feeling that he can afford to work less in training than others work.

Pair skating in this regard is not a very suitable discipline: you have to work here no less than in singles, and possibly more.

Especially if the skaters are faced with the task of breaking into the top.

One good example in this regard is before my eyes: the talented and very original single skater Elizaveta Osokina, who came to Moscow from Kazan, began working under Buyanova at CSKA, but rather quickly switched to pair skating on the advice of her coach.

This season, Lisa and her partner Artyom Gritsaenko successfully performed both in the junior and adult series of the Russian Grand Prix, and it was clear what a huge amount of joint work was behind the results of the duet.

Hard training plowing is hardly about Kostornaya: from the very moment Alena left Khrustalny for the first time in the summer of 2020 and went to Evgeni Plushenko after Sergei Rozanov, she did not bother herself with excessive work.

Objective reasons contributed to this: at first, the skater had been ill with covid, she came to Elena Buyanova’s group last summer with an injury, treated her for a long time and, in fact, never resumed serious training.

Instead, without really recovering from the operation, she began to perform in the show.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that Alena began to be involved in ice performances in paired numbers: this genre is much more in demand within the show than solo performances.

Especially when the skater is not able to perform complex jumps.

And just at this stage it became obvious how lucky Kostornaya was with her partner.

At Moskvina's school, Kunitsa is still remembered as an incredibly hardworking and disciplined athlete, highly charged with results.

Another question is that the guy did not work out with his partner: Zhenya Tumanova turned out to be somewhat heavy for the not too powerful George, besides, the couple did not get along in character.

But Kunitsa got a profession that allows him to make good money in the show just at that period of his career, training under the guidance of Moskvina and Artur Minchuk.

In this regard, Kostornaya, literally and figuratively, fell into good hands.

But even taking into account this circumstance, it is still premature to talk about some far-reaching plans and prospects for the couple, despite the fact that an excellent specialist Sergey Roslyakov agreed to work with the skaters.

Firstly, it is not a fact that the coach will be an ideal candidate for the newly created duet.

He is a creative person, and such people are rarely able to be despots in relation to their wards.

Kostornaya, on the other hand, always needed a tough hand - in fact, it was precisely for this, albeit unsuccessfully, that she at one time returned from Plushenko back to Eteri Tutberidze.

Secondly, the training of Kostornaya and Marten at the new rink began with the fact that, in the absence of a coach, Alena broke two fingers on her hand.

This became an additional argument in favor of taking a vacation after the New Year's shows, and only then thinking about joint work aimed at sports results.

Accordingly, now the future of the couple looks uncertain, not to say ephemeral.

At the moment, the skaters are vacationing together in Cuba, and the question of how quickly they will be able to gain enough condition to start competing is still open.