Kamila Valieva was taken into circulation – Newspaper Kommersant No. 38 (7483) dated 03/06/2023

The main sensation of the finals of the Russian Grand Prix series in figure skating in St. Petersburg was the victory of 15-year-old Adelia Petrosyan. At the final tournament this season, the athlete tamed three quadruple jumps and outstripped her titled rivals – European champion Kamila Valieva, 2015 world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and current Russian champion Sofia Akatieva. In the sum of the two programs, Petrosyan scored 255.01 points, which is almost 50 points more than the winner of the final of the international series Japanese Mai Mihara earned.

If the current season in figure skating developed for the Russians in accordance with the usual schedule, then now they would be preparing for the main tournament of the year – the March World Championships in Saitama, Japan. But domestic athletes were not allowed there, so instead of Saitama, top Russian skaters went to sort things out in the Grand Prix finals in St. Petersburg.

This tournament was a clear confirmation of the fact that domestic figure skaters, despite total banmanaged to make it to the end of the season without any significant losses. Moreover, the Russians – if we compare their results in the finals of the national series and the results of foreigners in the finals of the international – still retain their place in the forefront of world figure skating.

This, of course, is primarily about women’s single skating. Even before the start of the free program, it was clear that the confrontation among the girls in St. Petersburg would be serious. All participants of the strongest warm-up, including Kamila Valieva, declared at least two elements of the ultra-c class. And the most desperate are juniors Sofya Akatieva and Adelia Petrosyan – four each.

The tournament was won by Adelia Petrosyan (255.01), who actually did not look like a favorite against the background of more titled and experienced rivals.

Outwardly resembling a child and sliding a little more “childishly” Petrosyan won due to technique. In the short program, the student of Eteri Tutberidze “hammered” the triple axel, and in the free program she famously landed three quadruple jumps.

This was enough to overtake Kamila Valieva, who became second, by more than 13 points.

Valieva, the most discussed figure skater due to the doping scandal that still did not end, looked quite good compared to the start of the season. At the beginning of the free program, the central theme of which was her Olympic drama, she easily and gracefully coped with two quadruple sheepskin coats. But for the second half, the heavier and stretched figure skater did not have enough strength: she could not cope with the triple lutz, and in the end lost her pace. After the music stopped, Kamila Valieva, tired either because of the program or because of heavy context, fell on the ice and began to cry. And then she continued to sob already on the shoulder of her coach Eteri Tutberidze.

It is noteworthy that the gap between the second, third and fourth places was crumbs – tenths of a point. Valieva took silver with a score of 241.76, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva took bronze with 241.61, and Sofia Akatieva was in fourth place with a score of 241.09.

In the final of the international series, which took place back in December in Turin, all of them would easily have been higher than the winner from Japan, Mai Mihara (208.17).

With the same success, the Russians would have defeated foreign competitors in pair skating. In the final of the Russian Grand Prix series, a fierce duel was fought by two duets – 2021 world champions and Olympic champions in the team Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, as well as 2020 European champions and current Russian champions Alexandra Boykova with Dmitry Kozlovsky.

Both couples this season went to the complication. Mishina and Gallyamov began to learn a parallel triple lutz (this is an ultra-si element by the standards of pair skating), and Boikova and Kozlovsky began to learn a parallel triple rittberger and a combination of a triple salchow and two axels.

In the short program, Mishina and Gallyamov could not cope with their “ultra-c” element (the partner fell), and this mistake cost the athletes very dearly.

Despite the clean performance of the free program, after which the joyful Gallyamov in a red suit began to jump on the ice with happiness, they were left with only silver.

Mishina and Gallyamov lost less than a point to their opponents Boikova and Kozlovsky: 239.01 against 239.74. Interestingly, the winners of the international Grand Prix finals for couples in Turin earned much less: the Japanese Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara scored 214.58.

Curious was the denouement in the competition for men. The title of the winner was pulled out by 20-year-old Petr Gumennik, who never flew past the podium last season, but the 2020 European champion Dmitry Aliyev grabbed the silver, not least thanks to the mistakes of his rivals. After the short program, the skater ended up in the very basement of the standings, was the eleventh out of twelve participants. But in the free program, Aliyev managed, having made three quads, to score more than 100 points for technique and thus caught up with the leaders.

Ekaterina Remizova