Losses at the start: the figure skating tournament at the Spartakiad will be held without Gumennik, Muravyova and Kostornaya

Without Valieva, Muravyova and Gumennik

On Friday, February 16, the figure skating tournament starts as part of the Spartakiad of the Strongest. Selection for the competition took place at the stages of the Russian Grand Prix: 12 best singles and singles athletes, as well as eight sports pairs and ten dance duets each won tickets to Magnitogorsk. However, not everyone made it to the competition.

The Spartakiad will be the first major tournament since the 2021/22 Olympic season that will be held without Kamila Valieva. After a tough decision by CAS, which left the 17-year-old figure skater without competition until December 2025, student Eteri Tutberidze can attend such events only as a spectator.

It is known that the organizers of the Spartakiad wanted to invite Kamila to demonstration performances, but the FFKKR refused, as this could be perceived as a violation of the terms of disqualification. In this case, the period of sanctions may be doubled, so, alas, viewers will have to come to terms with the absence of their favorite. Valieva’s place in Magnitogorsk was taken by Lyudmila Fursova, who, according to the results of the Grand Prix, became 13th.

At the last moment, due to illness, Sofya Muravyova refused to participate, which is why all questions about the winner of the competition most likely disappeared by themselves. In the absence of Evgeni Plushenko's pupil, the sole favorite of the tournament is Adelia Petrosyan, who has not lost a single official competition this season (if you do not take into account the semi-entertaining national jumping championship). It is not yet clear whether the skater was able to restore the triple Axel, which, according to her, was “lost” before the December Russian Championship, but even without this element she will give any of the participants a head start.

Among the contenders for the podium, Ksenia Sinitsyna stands out. The bronze medalist of the national championship, although she does not have ultra-C elements in her arsenal, but excels with incredible plasticity and the ability to interpret music. Another danger for her is Daria Sadkova, another student of Khrustalny, who owns a quadruple sheepskin coat, but is not yet fully able to cope with her nerves at adult competitions.

Alina Gorbacheva, who has a quad Salchow to her credit, will also be able to compete for awards. True, only on condition that she managed to overcome a number of difficulties that the 16-year-old figure skater herself spoke about earlier. So, after failing in the free program at the December national championship, Alina admitted that this season for the first time she understood the meaning of the word “puberty,” which she had heard more than once from her older colleagues. This concept in figure skating has a broad meaning: it includes active growth, loss of coordination on the ice, and mood swings coupled with reduced performance. The competition will show how much all this influenced Gorbacheva’s preparation.

The men's tournament also suffered a serious loss. The bronze medalist of the national championship, Pyotr Gumennik, will not be able to take part in the competition due to pneumonia and coronavirus. Until the last moment, the athlete hoped to recover and go to Magnitogorsk, but the Figure Skating Federation of St. Petersburg reasonably decided not to risk his health and did not include him in the application for the tournament. Instead, Belarusian Alexander Lebedev will appear before the public.  

In the absence of Peter, the main favorite of the competition will be two-time Russian champion Evgeniy Semenenko, and his main competitor will be Vladislav Dikidzhi. For both of them, preparation for the tournament was not without adventures. Thus, Alexei Mishin’s ward fell ill on the eve of the championship in the Northern capital and briefly dropped out of the training process, and his opponent had a shocking story with an attack in the subway, which can affect psychological readiness. And in order to fight Semenenko, Dikiji cannot allow the slightest disruption: as the Chechen Republic has shown, even a small mistake can cost a victory.

Mark Kondratyuk, who took an unusual tenth place, as well as Gleb Lutfullin and Matvey Vetlugin, who finished outside the top 10, will have to rehabilitate themselves for their failure at the national championship.

Undoubtedly, special attention during the Spartakiad will be focused on Andrei Mozalev, because this will be his first official start after moving to Tutberidze. Of course, a month is too short a time to talk about any serious changes in skating, and the skater will present the same programs. According to him, there is no point in changing the settings for one start, especially since he already competed at the national championship with a new short one. However, Mozalev hopes that the effect of the change in headquarters will be felt at least psychologically, so he is waiting for the support of the new coach at the side during the competition.

Fundamental rivalry in pairs

The most important rivalry will usually unfold in pairs skating. Anastasia Mishina - Alexander Gallyamov and Alexandra Boykova - Dmitry Kozlovsky are fully prepared for the tournament. The only head-to-head meeting this season was left for Tamara Moskvina’s charges, but her former students are probably eager to take revenge. However, this will not be easy for them to do. Over the past three tournaments (two stages of the Grand Prix and the Czech Republic), Alexandra and Dmitry failed to produce error-free skates in both programs: at least on one of the days, some blots appeared.

Mishina and Gallyamov had more stability in this regard. Although they failed the short one in the debut performance of the season, they did not make any more serious mistakes.

Hot on the heels of the leaders are a number of couples training with Pavel Slyusarenko. The bronze medalists of the national championship were Ekaterina Chikmareva and Matvey Yanchenkov, and the jumping tournament was won by Elizaveta Osokina and Artyom Gritsaenko. The latter would probably have competed for third place at the Czech Republic, if not for an unfortunate incident - their partner’s lace broke during the free program, which is why the duo lost a lot of points.

Another Perm couple, Yulia Artemyeva and Alexey Bryukhanov, have an ultra-C element in their arsenal - a quadruple twist, which they successfully demonstrated in Chelyabinsk. Alas, Anastasia Mukhortova and Dmitry Evgeniev will not be able to force the fight on them: the couple was forced to withdraw from participation at the last moment due to their partner’s illness.

Great disappointment befell fans of Alena Kostornaya, as she and Georgy Kunitsa withdrew from the Spartakiad competition. The ex-European champion will have surgery on her shoulder, which they decided not to postpone, as the pain prevents her from fully training and performing. Another duet of Sergei Roslyakov, Taisiya Sobinina and Denis Khodykin, who were the first reserves, will also not go to Magnitogorsk - it’s also about the health of their partner.

There were also losses in the dancing. Ekaterina Mironova - Evgeniy Ustenko and Sofya Tyutyunina - Matvey Grachev are missing the competition for medical reasons. But their absence is unlikely to make adjustments to the medal balances. The main contenders for gold in this discipline are three-time national champions Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin. At the recent national championship, they were more than ten points ahead of their closest pursuers, partners in the coaching group Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Yegor Bazin.

And if before that tournament it seemed that the latter, in turn, were unattainable for other medal contenders, then after it became clear: they would also have a difficult fight for silver. Irina Khavronina and David Narizhny beat them in the free program, and who knows how this confrontation would have ended if Denis Samokhin’s charges had not made an unfortunate mistake on the twizzles in the rhythm dance.

Other contenders for bronze include Sofya Leontyeva and Daniil Gorelkin, as well as another Zhulin residents Elizaveta Shanaeva and Pavel Drozd.

It is not only athletes who have experienced various types of health difficulties. This time, TV viewers will not hear Tatyana Tarasova’s commentary from the scene: the legendary coach was ill and almost completely lost her voice.