Ice and fall: what to expect from Petrosyan and Humennik in the selection for the Olympic Games

On September 18-21, Beijing will host the first international ISU tournament with the participation of Russian figure skaters — 3.5 years after the last one, the 2022 Olympics, took place there. But back then, a full—fledged ROC national team competed for medals in all kinds with three participants, now only two can get to the Games - Adelia Petrosyan and Peter Gumennik. What are their chances at the qualifying tournament and what will it mean for their performances at the Olympics — in the Izvestia article.

Petrosyan: a difficult choice

What you definitely shouldn't do is hang the Olympic gold medal around Adelia's neck in advance, despite a series of three Olympic victories in a row among Russian women. It's not even that the Russian woman has not been seen abroad, except on vacation, and supposedly all the judges in the world will try to put a stick in her wheels.

Petrosyan had a difficult offseason. According to SE, until recently, the option of replacing Alina Gorbacheva was on the table of the federation's leaders, and of course, it was actively defended by the coach of the reserve figure skater Sofya Fedchenko. Among the reasons are interruptions in the preparation process of Adelia due to the effects of injury. She doesn't have stable quads at the beginning of this season yet. They don't talk about it openly — Petrosyan's headquarters is working in silence. But hints of a difficult summer could be heard in the words of Daniil Gleichengauz in the Skating Rink show.

This is the drama of the situation — the ISU rules and the conjuncture in women's single skating in Russia pin Petrosyan and Eteri Tutberidze's staff to the wall. Objectively, there was no one else to send. There will be no other international tournaments until February — the suspension has not been completed, it has simply been interrupted for two starts related to the Olympics. Therefore, an international reputation is forged here and now, in seven minutes of a short and free program. This is incredibly small, every mistake is on the verge of fatality, and there are also decent status rivals like Luna Hendricks and Anastasia Gubanova.

Petrosyan is the favorite of the selection, but not the undisputed one. She should be able to cope with the task of getting into the top 5 without any problems, figure skating is a sport in which the percentage of sensations is significantly lower than football or cycling disciplines. But the fight for the potential gold of Milan obliges you to win, and with an advantage. This brings us, or rather the coaches and the athlete, to the forks, at each of which you need to make the right turn.

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First of all, should I do the triple axel in the short program? Fours are forbidden in it according to the rules, only they can stand out. Hendricks and even Gubanova will probably have higher components, which means that in order to become a leader after the first day and avoid doubts about superiority, you need to jump it. But the jump is risky and not necessarily ready. A fall throws you far back and forces you to take arbitrary risks. It might be better to just focus on perfect triples, spins, and tracks, but that will make winning less certain, or even force you to catch up.

Secondly, should I do fours in the free program and how much? Quads are a feature of the Russian figure skating school and Tutberidze's headquarters, and the picture "a Russian woman came for the first time in four years and showed who's in charge here" certainly wouldn't hurt. But doesn't the risk of getting a picture outweigh the risk of getting a picture of "a Russian woman arrived, got hurt with a quadruple and barely got out of fourth place"? The main thing is the readiness of Adelia herself. It is tempting to postpone everything until Milan and just solve the problem of qualifying. But if Petrosyan doesn't beat Hendrix, how will she take Olympic gold with Lew, Glenn and Sakamoto, detractors will cry.

Finding a reasonable balance between their capabilities and the binding necessity is the main difficulty for Petrosyan at the Olympic qualifying tournament. And according to her personal record, even taking into account the margins of the internal judging, she is far ahead of everyone. And the programs collected from previous seasons are also the best — Michael Jackson in the short and tango of Buenos Aires in the free.

Gumennik

Surprisingly, Peter has a simpler situation. Firstly, he was lucky not to get a single strong competitor in Beijing. Secondly... I would like to say that he does not have the same responsibility as Petrosyan, but this will be a big discount for Veronika Daineko's ward, which he does not need. We think it's strange and short-sighted not to promote our guy as a medal contender. And the St. Petersburg federation realized just that and scored 304 points at the home tournament in September for not the best rentals.

Given the complexity of the content, Humennik can definitely pick up a bronze medal — and the federation, the Ministry of Sports, and finally Russia need it, which will have representation in four or five sports at the Olympics, with the second team in half. Just to show that we are alive and ready to jump over our heads for ourselves and other guys.

Putting aside the pathos and locking up the pathos, Humennik has everything to objectively be considered a top skater in the pool of medal contenders. He has a quadruple flip and a lutz in the short program at the same time, which is a very rare combination. He can jump five fours in a free skate with complex cascades — but here is the same dilemma as Petrosyan.: how many of them should be shown not even to the judges in Beijing, but as a message to the Olympic competitors in absentia and the world community? I don't want to send videos of falls.

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A lot of things in the case of Humennik will be decided by the second assessment, the components, the artistry. That is why there are so many passions around the replacement-the return of the St. Petersburg free program. "Onegin" clearly looks more profitable than the abstract "Prayer", but the main thing is whether the Russian will be able to convince the judges in one tournament that he is a component skater? And that he deserves high marks not only for his jumps, but also for foreign judges to search for broadcasts of the Russian Grand Prix stages with his participation in autumn and winter.

Again, according to his personal record, Humennik is much higher than any of his rivals, including many former Russians.