Daughters go into battle: successors of family dynasties spoke at the Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial

This week the Russian Figure Skating Grand Prix series starts in Ufa. It includes six stages, which will also take place in Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Samara and Moscow.

Some leading Russian figure skaters decided to use participation in the traditional Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial to prepare for the prestigious series, which is considered by the leadership of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR) as an alternative to the international Grand Prix series. It took place on the ice of the academy, which bears the name of the first Russian Olympic champion.

On the ice – all the color

Nikolai Kolomenkin, an employee of the state chamber, went to London, where the figure skating competitions were held as part of the 1908 Summer Olympics, in secret from his immediate superiors. He even performed under a pseudonym, which later became firmly established as a prefix to his last name. The current generation of Russian figure skaters does not have to resort to such secrecy.

In most types of the program (three out of four), there was no competition in the fight for victory at the Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial. Russian champions and participants in the 2022 Olympics in pairs competitions, Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky, left Tamara Moskvina in the spring for Eteri Tutberidze’s group, where a powerful team of coaches works with pairs. Even at the pre-season tournament, there were three people standing at the side. It is curious that, having left for Moscow (sometimes Alexandra and Dmitry even train in Perm), these skaters represent St. Petersburg.

The recently formed duo Irina Khavronina / David Narizhny celebrated their victory in the dancers’ competition. The young skaters began an affair, they broke up with their previous partners and became a couple. Even the fall of a partner in the free dance did not prevent the figure skaters from the Moscow region from winning the St. Petersburg tournament. In the women’s competition, Anna Frolova, who moved to St. Petersburg from Moscow and began training in the group of Evgeny Rukavitsyn, was out of competition.

A truly serious challenge was in the men’s competition, where the whole cream of St. Petersburg figure skating gathered, with the exception of Evgeny Semenenko and Pyotr Gumennik. Dmitry Aliyev celebrated the victory, Gleb Lutfullin won silver, and Makar Ignatov won bronze. Participant of the European Championship 2022 Andrey Mozalev remained below the prize-winner line.

Worthy change

In addition to adult skaters, juniors competed at the Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial in the candidate master program. And here two young figure skaters, whose parents had once shone at prestigious international competitions, attracted attention. The bronze medalist of the competition was Polina Tikhonova, the daughter of world and European champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov. For the first time in her career, the 13-year-old figure skater, representing the Eteri Tutberidze school, where her father works, scored more than 200 points in the sum of two programs. With such a result, she could be among the winners among adults.

“At five and a half years old, Polina’s grandmothers took her to the figure skating section,” Maria Petrova told MK in St. Petersburg. “My daughter didn’t want to continue the family traditions; she went in for equestrian sports and ballet. So far, Alexey and I have not decided on her specialization in figure skating. Polina herself likes to be a singles skater, but she is not against trying her hand at sports pairs if a worthy partner appears. It seems to me that dancing is more suitable for Polina. She has a wonderful glide and is very musical.”

Salt Lake City Olympic champion Elena Berezhnaya spent some time training her daughter Sophia-Diana Cousins, whose father competed in singles skating for Great Britain. Only from the very beginning Berezhnaya saw Sofia as a guy and was very happy when her coach Tamara Moskvina found Alexander Bregey for her. This junior duo is coached by European champion Alexander Smirnov, who works at the Moskvina sports club.

At the Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial, the newly formed couple made their debut in official competitions. After the short program, Cousins ​​and Bregay took 7th place among eight participants, but in the free program they became fourth and in the sum of two programs – fifth. It’s too early to talk about the prospects of the junior couple, but FFKKR President Anton Sikharulidze needs to take note of his partners’ daughters. After all, he began his career paired with Petrova, becoming the world junior champion, and won the Olympics with Berezhnaya.