“Drowning in a swamp”: figure skater Alena Kostornaya ruined her debut in pairs

The Heart of Siberia tournament named Adelia Petrosyan the champion of singles (by the way, all participants were born in 2007 and 2008). He knocked everyone’s favorite Mark Kondratyuk down to fourth place in the singles skaters, who admitted that he was ashamed of his skating. For the first time I put Matvey Vetlugin on the golden step, the blond man in black continues to charm. In pairs skating, everything in Omsk was especially stormy – both on the ice and off the ice. World record, risk, swamp, toilet – this was the exclusive set of words following the start.

Yes, the second stage of the Russian Grand Prix, held at the newest G-Drive Arena in Omsk, which opened only in 2022, made people talk about pair skating more than ever. And leaders, and maturing talents, and debutants. The tournament stirred up emotions and provided plenty of food for thought. With only six participants it showed progress and prospects. I posed questions to the management, the judges, and at the same time the ethics commission: how to “drag a hippopotamus out of the swamp.”

World Champions Record

Contrary to the rapidly spreading two-day trend of pouring water on Russian judging at domestic figure skating competitions and discussing every word of pair skating debutant Alena Kostornaya (partner Georgy Kunitsa says he agrees with everything), I still want to start with the victory in this event of Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov . Nastya and Sasha gave a master class: how to cope with work in any situation.

In the short program, despite the victory, they seriously tickled both their own and the fans’ nerves. The loss of an element for athletes of this level is an emergency. Sasha did not make a triple jump, which, as figure skaters like to say, he could have performed with his eyes closed. Then he clarified the reason for the Salchow failure: “probably, I was just in a hurry, I didn’t drive in an arc.” And I promised: next time I will pay more attention to this. Knowing Alexander’s love for a sport other than figure skating, many fans immediately became concerned: quit football, Sasha!

Gallyamov also said that he didn’t even remember the last time there was such a breakdown in training. But he remembered the 2020 Russian Championship, connecting the performances with a gap of almost four years with the phrase: “a repeat happened.” Nastya and Sasha at that championship, and they were still performing under the guidance of coach Lyudmila Velikova, skated their short program extremely unsuccessfully, making serious mistakes. After apologizing, they said that athletes “are not robots, and machines also malfunction.” And that we need to get ready for the free program: “let’s take a walk, let’s get distracted.”

They apparently managed to get distracted back then in Krasnoyarsk; they skated the free program well, as Tatyana Tarasova commented, “there were some shortcomings, but there were no mistakes.” But this was only enough for fourth place. (Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky won the championship, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov were in second place, Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin were in third place.)

An error in the short program in Omsk at the second stage of the Russian Grand Prix forced the titled athletes to be extremely careful in the free program. And the free program was good. Beautifully choreographed through the efforts of famous dance coaches Irina Zhuk and Alexander Svinin, soulfully performed, technically presented without errors. They also showed a complication. That is, champion level.

Coach Tamara Moskvina smiled and even placed a large number 1 thrown by the audience on her own head. The skaters won with 159.48 points for their free skate. And these points were higher than their own world record, set at the European Championships in 2022 (157.46 points).

Heroine and risk

Second were Natalya Khabibullina and Ilya Knyazhuk, who moved to the silver stage from third place after the short program. The couple clearly announced themselves on the very first day and could even create a mini-sensation by taking advantage of Gallyamov’s mistake.

In the free program, Natalya and Ilya performed jumps with releases and delighted with elements, receiving the highest 78 points for technique. Ilya picked up his partner after the skate and left the ice with a smiling burden. Then he admitted: Natasha, after just suffering from an illness, “managed to show a perfect performance, she’s just a heroine!” And both skaters assured: “we will add even more confidence.”

After the free program, Yulia Artemyeva and Alexey Bryukhanov moved from second to third place. They did an excellent job in the short program, and in the free program they took a risk – performing a quadruple twist. They are not the first – Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakhrai, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov did it a long time ago in the last century, then the Chinese Sui and Han, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov… There are fifteen couples in the entire history of world figure skating. But the element: throwing a partner who will twist four turns, catching her and putting her on the ice is not serial.

While Yulia and Alexey did not perform the twist cleanly at the competition, although they were very close to it, after the fall they also broke the cascade. But it seems that beautiful execution is a matter of time. As Alexey said, the element had been discussed since July. And in Omsk “there was a good attempt” at training, so “we decided to take a risk.”

Very noisy debut

And the short program in the same Krasnoyarsk 2020 mentioned in connection with Gallyamov’s mistake was then won by single skater Alena Kostornaya. The scores were enchanting, the gap from Anya Shcherbakova and Sasha Trusova was more than 10 points. Alena later scored the best points in her career for the free dance “Twilight”. The components were higher than those of Shcherbakova, but the scores for technique were almost 16 points lower; two triple axels could not compete with three quadruple jumps. So, based on the sum of the two programs, Kostornaya lost two points to Anna, and this was her only tournament that season without gold (they both left Sasha far behind). Then Alena won the European Championship…

Later in her career there was a well-known story with departures and arrivals from one coaching staff to another and back (Tutberidze – Plushenko – Tutberidze). Another transition (Tutberidze – Buyanova). And the walk ended with a final separation from CSKA, then a wedding and a loud change of specialization: the skater paired up with her husband under the guidance of coach Sergei Roslyakov.

And at the very first official tournament, that is, in Omsk, Alena Kostornaya – Georgy Kunitsa, taking to the ice in a warm-up immediately with the world’s top players Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, which can already be considered a huge advance (as well as participation with a zero rating in control skates of the country’s strongest skaters), takes fourth place. The victories on single ice are already far behind (and, by the way, it seems extremely harmful for the athlete to remember this now). Behind the changes of coaching staffs, each time heatedly discussed, and eagerly devoured by society (at the very, very moment of the triumph of our women’s single skating everywhere) Alena’s interviews with stories: who, how, in what and when was wrong in relation to the figure skater .

Receiving fourth place in Omsk at the very first start of a new life in figure skating is a great start. Surprising and even somewhat unexpected, because the couple only knows nothing about the date of her birth. But something went wrong for Alena again. New accusations, this time of judges, were made after the Grand Prix stage in Omsk.

After the skate, the skater states that you can’t talk to the judges at competitions, but “I would like to find out what I didn’t like, to look them in the eyes.” There is a lot of anger – both in words and on the face. Kostornaya literally vomits and rants: “I am dissatisfied with the way our work was assessed: it was flushed down the toilet.” Once upon a time in her youth, Kostornaya circulated the story that she wanted to be a neurosurgeon; she was very interested in it. She is probably interested in many things, but what is definitely her element is the conversational genre.

The transformation from singles to doubles has begun, Alena is mastering new elements quickly, all the experts praise her. And absolutely everyone celebrates the future. Just like the fact that pair skating needs to be “rolled out” so that two people become a single organism, and not just athletes next to each other. Why did Kostornaya expect higher marks in the component part: after all, the inability of the new pair cannot be denied? That’s what they asked her. She answered that she didn’t know “about all the components,” but “there is skating skill.” And “never in my life” will she believe that she skates “worse than other athletes.” No, I agree that “work in pairs is assessed,” but she also believes that “Gosh skates no worse than other boys.” And collectively, they “are not lagging behind in terms of this criterion, in terms of program execution, program interpretation.” And they “tuned in, prepared and trained,” but “the way it was assessed leaves much to be desired, destroys all emotions, all positive attitude.”

Twenty years is a wonderful age. A lot is possible. For some reason, even thinking that it is permissible to claim that you have an “objective understanding” of how “your favorite sport periodically drowns in a swamp.” Or talk about how “the world is cruel, unfortunately, everyone thinks to themselves.” Even agree that “this is correct, this is how it should be done, but there is a sports principle that this contradicts.”

And also to explain the free program with a torn triple toe loop in a set of an impressively conceived triple flip, triple toe loop and double axel (but Georgy did not do the axel after Alena’s fall), with an unsuccessful release and rotation, with a low-rated twist and toes with just one phrase: “We had enough for the morning training, but not enough for the evening skate.” And because she couldn’t cope with her emotions after the judges’ scores for the short program. In short, she ate herself, and at the same time George, herself. And she took down everything that she had accumulated personally – exactly where she specified when talking about bad judges.

…If we sum it all up, then the story that blew up in Omsk is very indicative and should become a lesson. Of course, it is customary to love rebels. But this is not the case. The revolt must not only be merciless, but also fair. And asking yourself strictly is not only not a sin, but the first necessity.

But there is also a lesson. There was a range of scores in the short program. If the judges put from minus 3 (and two of the judges did this, which means one three-point mark was taken into account) to plus 3 for the same support, this is not the norm. And putting components from 6.75 to 9.25 is also not the norm. Let the extremes not be taken into account.

In general, if you move away from the excessively high degree of emotions in Omsk, then you come to an understanding: with such extraordinary athletes, appropriate measures are needed. How necessary are they in general in situations that periodically occur at domestic competitions, when suddenly athletes (or their famous mentors) publicly explode with misunderstanding, even almost rage: what the hell? Maybe they should be brought together after the skates? That judge who must “look you in the eye and say what exactly you didn’t like,” and the skater(s) or coaches. You see, both sides will be useful to each other, will help. Someone will definitely learn the rules.

Omsk, second stage of the Russian Grand Prix

1. Anastasia Mishina – Alexander Gallyamov: 232.98

2. Natalya Khabibullina – Ilya Knyazhuk: 221.67

3. Yulia Artemyeva – Alexey Bryukhanov: 203.32

4. Alena Kostornaya – Georgy Kunitsa: 192.77

5. Karina Akopova – Nikita Rakhmanin: 190.75

6. Elizaveta Kuleshova – Vladimir Sled: 156.45