A slippery slope: how our skaters are trying to qualify for the Olympics

The first stage of the Speed Skating World Cup, which was attended by Russian athletes competing in a neutral status, has ended in Salt Lake City. The results of the stage can be described rather as positive: two of our three athletes were able to rise from group B to Group A and now have a good chance of qualifying for the 2026 Olympic Games. However, there are enough barriers for this. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

Specify immediately

Four Russian girls went to the USA — Ksenia Korzhova, Alexandra Sayutina, Anastasia Semenova and Irina Salnikova. The admission scheme for neutrals from the International Skating Union (ISU) is extremely inconvenient and, without exaggeration, discriminatory. You can only start in individual disciplines, one athlete is allowed in each of them. The substitute goes to the start only in case of injury to the main one and brings points to the main one. This approach led to the fact that Russia did not have the opportunity to freely choose people to apply from the general list of neutrals, it was necessary to immediately indicate who would run what.

For this reason, the application looked like this: Korzhova — 3 thousand m, Sayutina — 1.5 thousand m, Semenova — mass start, Salnikova spare. Since Russian athletes were not allowed to participate in international competitions in previous seasons, they all ended up in group "B", that is, in the conditional second division of the World Cup participants, the one that is not shown on the broadcast and which gets noticeably fewer points, even if it demonstrates seconds at the level of the leaders of group "A".

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As a result, Ksenia Korzhova became the third in the 3,000 m on the first day of the competition, setting a personal best (3.59.95) and for the first time in her life "changing" four minutes. This earned the athlete 25 qualifying points, with which, according to the results of the first stage, Ksenia takes 18th place. There are few points in group B, so Chinese Yang, who took the last, 16th place in Group A, received the same 25 as Korzhova, who became the third in Group B. There are still 15 participants of group "A" above Ksenia and two more girls, Nadezhda Morozova (Kazakhstan) and Marina Zueva (Belarus), who beat her in group "B".

Anastasia Semenova started on the final, third day of the stage and became the fourth in the mass start, which earned her 17 points. With them, she is still in 25th position according to the same logic as Korzhova - the whole group "A", even the last—place Norwegian Lovas, got more, plus 20 points were earned by the winner of the mass start in group "B" Elizaveta Golubeva (Kazakhstan).

Alexandra Sayutina performed poorly at 1.5 thousand meters, falling on the second lap. The athlete was the last in group B, and she did not earn any points.

Error and risk

Everything is clear about the places in the qualification ranking: Korzhova is still 18th, Semenova is 25th. It remains to understand what it gives them. At the next stage, which will be held in Calgary, Canada, both girls will most likely have to start in Group A — this is the most important thing they have achieved, as the main points are distributed there. For example, if Korzhova had shown her 3.59.95 in group A, she would have received 30 points instead of 25 (this is taking into account the fact that both Morozova and Zueva, who were ahead of her in group B, would have run there). And if they hadn't run, Ksenia would have had 32 points with the same result.

The same can be said about Semenova, adjusted for the fact that it is difficult to operate in seconds in a mass start. Sayutina in Calgary will have to start everything from scratch, from group "B". To earn a ticket to the OI, she has three stages left.

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Since Korzhova was not declared by the Russian Skating Union for 5,000 meters as the main athlete, Ksenia will not compete in the second long distance in women's skating, which she is able to run very well. This can definitely be called a strategic mistake of the TFR, but nothing can be done now.

For this reason, Ksenia will not start the third stage of the KM in the Netherlands, where there are no 3,000 meters in the program, that is, she has only Calgary and Hamar ahead of her. The only thing that calms down is that all the other girls who qualify for the 3,000 m are in the same situation, as qualifying points are earned at each distance separately.