Our start: how Savely Korostelev was left without an OI medal
Savely Korostelev had his best race at the international level, but stopped one step away from a medal. The Russian was in the leading skiathlon group for most of the race, but missed three competitors at the finish. One of them, Frenchman Mathis Delauge, cut part of the distance, receiving only a yellow card instead of disqualification. Our delegation filed a protest, and if it had been satisfied, Korostelev could have won the bronze medal. However, the jury remained adamant, formalizing the most offensive place for Savely — the fourth. Our other athletes were not close to the awards during the opening days of the games. But even before the rentals, a scandal broke out around figure skater Pyotr Gumennik, who urgently had to look for other music to perform. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Music connected us
The first day of the 2026 Olympics brought extremely unpleasant news for Russian figure skating enthusiasts. It turned out that the music from the film "The Perfumer" for the short program of the Russian single player Peter Gumennik was not approved for use at the Games due to copyright issues. The IOC and ISU have shifted responsibility to the athlete's team, and fans are outraged by the injustice.
The Russian champion probably won't be able to replace the new program with the old one either — there simply isn't time to get permission to use the music from the Dune movie. The British classical pianist Martin Bartlett was supposed to help Humennik. One of the cheerleaders asked him to give Humennik permission to use music. And the Briton promptly replied: "Maybe he'll take my record? Help is on the way."
However, it was impossible to delay: Peter was supposed to present a short program in Italy on February 10. Obviously, he cannot perform to the first "pure" melody he comes across — the music dictates the image, all the elements of the rental are sharpened to its rhythm. On the other hand, some fans jokingly suggested that Peter perform to the legendary piece "4:33" by John Cage. This track consists entirely of silence. The musician opens the piano keys and does not touch the instrument for 4 minutes and 33 seconds.
Later, the athlete's coach Veronika Daineko informed Izvestia that the figure skater would perform at the Olympics to the waltz "Onegin 1805". Composer Edgar Hakobyan, to whose waltz Russian figure skater Pyotr Gumennik will perform at the Olympics in Italy, is confident that from a legal point of view there will be no problems.
— They write to me in the morning that there are some kind of rights problems. What problems can there be? We don't have any problems. It is not discussed how something like this was "resolved". Well, of course, I was happy to give everyone the rights, of course. There are no problems in the legal part," the composer said in an interview with Izvestia.
Hakobyan explained that his work has been closely linked to figure skating for many years, and the music he creates already includes the possibility of skating to it.
On Sunday, Humennik took to the ice, accompanied by Veronika Daineko and Rafael Harutyunyan. The American coach from Tbilisi was urgently accredited on February 8. On February 7, he was not yet with Ilya Malinin. Harutyunyan is a huge figure in the world of figure skating, so his help behind the side will definitely come in handy.
Unsuccessful finish
During Sunday's men's skiathlon on February 8, athletes had to overcome six difficult laps: three in classic style and three in free style. The total distance was 20 km, exactly the same as for the women the day before. The Russian national team was represented at all individual ski starts by Savely Korostelev, who visited the flower ceremony several times during the season. However, this skiathlon was the first for the Russian in this competitive year, as such a race was not held either at the Russian Cup or the World Cup (our athlete missed the only skiathlon).
Savely's performances during the season, where he showed high results, inspired optimism before the Olympic start. However, it should not be forgotten that all the competitors fielded their strongest teams in Val di Fiemme. Unless Norway decided to ignore Emil Iversen, who took third place in the Trondheim skiathlon. The Scandinavian coaching staff opted for Mattis Stenshagen, who was confident only in classic style racing. He was accompanied by Klebo, Amundsen and Nuenget.
In theory, Finn Niskanen, Austrian Fermoylen, Swede Unger and, perhaps, some of the French and Italians could compete with the Norwegians at a high level.
However, by the middle of the skating part of the race, it became obvious that only five remained in the fight for medals — Klebo, Nuenget, Lapalyu, Delozh and Korostelev. In such a situation, of course, it was necessary for the athletes to try to throw off the leader of the Norwegian national team, who at the finish line, under any circumstances, was the strongest by a head. However, Johannes himself acted so competently that he did not let anyone go ahead, conducting the race at a comfortable pace.
At the finish of the first lap, another unpleasant situation occurred. French skier Deloge confused the racing corridors, took a wrong turn, and returned to the track by cutting the distance. The judges ruled on this incident almost immediately, giving the Frenchman a warning for his actions, which, with another violation, would have turned into disqualification.
Right up to the finish climb, the entire leading group walked quite calmly, even slowing down their pace at times. The athletes left all the showdowns for the final climb, where Johannes Klebo, leaving no chance for anyone, went into a big gap that no one could close.
The fate of the other medals was already being decided at the finish line, where a group of four athletes, including Korostelev, entered. Right up to the last meters of the race, our athlete kept his chances of winning the award in his very first Olympic race. Unfortunately, however, the Russian has not yet succeeded in realizing his ambitions.: the same Delozh, who cut the turn, and Nuenget turned out to be stronger than Savely, who eventually finished fourth.
As for the Frenchman, after the finish of the race, the Russian side filed a protest against his actions. After a long trial, the judges decided not to punish Deloge in any way, so the result of the skiathlon remained unchanged. Nevertheless, the final result can certainly be credited to Korostelev himself. The Russian has three more races ahead of him, in which he can definitely prove himself.
"I chose the wrong position before the last climb," Korostelev told Izvestia. — They shouted at me not to be the last to sit down, and that's exactly what I did. I think I went after Martin, but Hugo blocked the line for me a little bit, and I lost contact with them. I had to catch up, but they were too far away at the finish line. A yellow business card? In my opinion, this is completely the responsibility of the jury. I'm not a judge to talk about it.
Now Savely will have even more motivation to win a medal. The main start for our athlete will probably be the 50 km marathon, which will be held in a classic style, where Korostelev feels very confident. Skiers from Russia will start their second Olympic race on February 10. Daria and Savely will have to run, perhaps, the most difficult race for themselves at these games. The classic style sprint will be held on Tuesday, where our athletes are not showing themselves as vividly as in distance starts.
A bad start
On February 7, in Val di Fiemme, the best skiers in the world went to the start of the Olympic skiathlon, the first race in the program of the 2026 Games. Among the speakers was Daria Nepryaeva, a representative of Russia, who received neutral status in December and qualified for the Olympics through the World Cup stages. Alas, it is difficult to call our athlete's debut a triumph.
Daria did not manage to catch a single skiathlon at the World Cup. Here, perhaps, one could recall the final classic mass start in Goma, where Nepryaeva looked confident enough and even entered the top ten. In skating, the athlete did not particularly shine, so the second part of the current start caused some concerns.
Nepryaeva stayed in the group of leaders only on the first lap, when the pace of the race was low. As soon as the competitors started trying to escape, Daria immediately "fell off." As a result, she did not have the best race for herself, fixing 17th position at the finish line with a total lag of 3 minutes 56 seconds behind the winner Frida Carlsson from Sweden. In theory, the Russian could have claimed the top 10, but there was a fall on the descent.
Now there are only three opportunities left for Daria to prove herself at the Olympics. She will be able to compete in the race with a separate start, sprint and marathon on the last day of the Games. Our athlete will have to skip the team disciplines, because Daria is the only Russian skier with a neutral status.
Two evacuations
Medals were also awarded in alpine skiing. In the women's downhill, Russian Yulia Pleshkova was among the participants. The victory in this discipline was celebrated by American Breezy Johnson — she covered the distance in 1 minute 36.10 seconds. German Emma Eicher took the second place (+0.04), Italian Sofia Goji took the third (+0.59).
Pleshkova finished 22nd with a score of 1 minute 39.69 seconds, 3.59 seconds behind the leader. Most likely, Julia was knocked down by a big pause before her start: doctors were helping Andorran alpine skier Canda Moreno, who fell very badly during the descent. The girl was evacuated from the highway by helicopter.
The women's downhill race was marred by another incident. The first to have an accident was 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn. The legendary American athlete came to the Olympics with a severe injury — a ruptured cruciate ligament, but still made it to the start. Unfortunately, it ended sadly — Vonn caught the flag and fell hard, screaming in pain. She was also evacuated by helicopter.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
