Olympic pressure: how Humennik started at the Games in Italy

On Tuesday, February 10, the singles figure skating competition started at the 2026 Olympic Games. Russia was represented by Peter Gumennik. After the first warm-up, he was in the lead, but in the second he was beaten by several athletes. The native of St. Petersburg did not succeed in renting a life, but there were circumstances for that. Other Russian athletes were also unable to please with their results on the fourth day of the Games, not coming close to the medals.

"I knew what I was doing"

Humennik's path to his Olympic debut turned out to be difficult. A few days before the start, it became known that Peter was having problems with music — the copyright holders forbade him to use the soundtrack from the film "The Perfumer", to which he was rolling a short program. The problem was quickly solved — composer Edgar Hakobyan came to the rescue, providing Waltz 1805 music from the Onegin film for the performance. However, changing the composition on the eve of the debut in any case became unnecessary stress. However, Humennik was able to cope with him — this opinion was expressed by two-time Olympic champion Evgeny Plushenko in an author's column for Sport-Express.

"This unpleasant story should not unsettle our figure skater,— said Plushenko. — If you are a great master, you can skate to any music. The choreography is all there. I think Petya can handle it, he's an artist here.

Nevertheless, there were problems: half an hour before Humennik's speech, it became known about the change of the jump content. Instead of the originally planned quadruple salchow and quadruple flip — triple toe loop cascade, Peter announced a quadruple flip, a quadruple lutz cascade, a triple toe loop and a triple axel.

Although the Russians perform in Italy in a neutral status, this does not prevent many viewers from supporting them. Humennik especially felt the popular love — shortly before his performance, a small group of fans with posters appeared at the stadium. Even Anton Sikharulidze, president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, was noticed among the fans.

Journalists working at the arena noted that at the entrance to the ice arena, security guards checked visitors for Russian flags — they were forbidden to carry them. Despite this, the tricolor was still noticed in the stands.

Finally, Humennik took to the ice to a standing ovation. Unfortunately, his dream debut did not work out: he performed a double toe loop instead of a triple one in a cascade with a quadruple flip, and also did not land the quadruple lutz perfectly. The pressure clearly affected Peter, which was reflected in the assessment — the Russian earned 86.72 points (48.43 for equipment, 38.29 for components).

And even though Humennik performed a little nervously, the stands received him warmly: soft toys and flowers flew onto the ice, and the audience chanted "Well done!"

"Usually, after a short program, I'm a little tired, exhausted, even if I skate well," Humennik told reporters. — I'm still full of energy right now. Apparently, this is such an Olympic charge, which gives so much strength. You don't feel tired. Are you happy with the rental? It's not that I'm euphoric, but in principle I'm happy because I didn't make any serious mistakes. The difference between a double and a triple sheepskin coat is not that big. I scored quite a few points for the first warm-up. Excitement before the flip? Yes, of course, this is the very first jump. But I knew what I was doing, what to prepare for. This is the most reliable option to get out one hundred percent, not to fall. Unfortunately, there was not enough speed for the triple sheepskin coat because of this.

Following the results of the second warm-up, Peter was beaten by Steven Gogolev (Canada, 87.41) and Kirill Marsak (Ukraine, 86.89). The men will present a free program on February 13.

Outside the top 30

Russian skiers overcame their equator at the Olympics — they competed in two of the four races available to them. If we had hopes for medals in the skiathlon, which opened the tournament in Italy, and Savely Korostelev confirmed our expectations with his fourth place, then in the classic sprint the calculation was more for luck. We were unlucky: our skiers fell off in qualifying.

Initially, coach Egor Sorin, in whose group Daria and Savely train, stated that there was a possibility of skipping the sprint at the Olympics. The lack of medal chances was hinted at by the previous performances of the Russians at the World Cup and the Tour de Ski. Before the Games, our skiers ran the sprint four times, but only at the stage in Homs were they able to overcome the qualification, having been eliminated in the quarterfinals.

The most significant of the past sprints took place as part of the Tour de Ski at the Olympic track in Val di Fiemme. It was classic — the same style is used at the Games. At that time, Nepryaeva showed her worst international sprint result on this track — 41st place, and the top 30 participants qualify for the quarterfinals.

There has been a lot of talk about the fact that it is easier to qualify for the sprint at the Olympics. Just over a month ago, nine Swedes beat Nepryaeva in Val di Fiemme, and at the Games the number of athletes from one country in the race cannot exceed four. However, this did not save Daria from an early departure.

By and large, Skiathlon has said everything about the current form of Indirect. In it, the Russian took 17th place, stating after the finish that she was not yet a competitor to the world leaders.

In the sprint qualification, Daria started at number 34 and finished 31st. That is, she was able to beat only three athletes who started the race before her. As a result, the Russian was relegated to the 36th place. Nepryaeva lost more than 15 seconds to the leader of the preliminary race, Swedish Lynn Swann (at a distance of only 1.5 km, this is a chasm), and more than two seconds were missing from the saving top 30.

"To be honest, I thought she'd make it to the top thirty," World Cup medalist Natalia Matveeva told Izvestia. — There are four people running from each country, and in principle it was possible to get in. But the circle is really hard. Although Olympic circles, of course, are always difficult. Both Savely and Daria have more hopes for distance racing than sprints. Dasha said after the skiathlon that the condition was not the same. Maybe it had an effect.

Korostelev's chances of reaching the quarterfinals were considered preferable. At the Tour de Ski, he was just a little short of qualifying for 31st place. And considering that there were five Norwegians ahead in Val di Fiemme in January, and now the maximum quota is four people per race, a place in the quarterfinals seemed to be looking out for Savely.

Alas, it did not come true. At the Olympics, he performed in the sprint slightly better than Daria, but worse than himself a month ago — 35th place. Savely lost 12 seconds to the winner of the preliminary race, Johannes Klebo, and was just over a second short of the top 30.

Next in the schedule of our neutrals is a 10-kilometer skating rink. The girls will run on February 12th, and the men on February 13th. We also have low medal forecasts for this type of program, but it doesn't make sense to skip it. The Russians will have plenty of time to recover, as they will only have the classic marathons, which will be held on February 21-22, and the rivals will still have two team races to run.

Falling and being fined

On February 10, the short track program started in Milan, where Russia was represented by two athletes - Alyona Krylova in the 500 m and Ivan Posashkov in the 1000 m. Both fought to reach the next round, but lacked experience: Krylova went to overtake for second place and clung to the Pole, flying into the side. Posashkov was in a passing second place, but was thrown out by the Chinese in a tough fight — at the same time he also grabbed a penalty from the judges, his result was annulled. Despite the prayerful gesture in which he folded his arms in front of the camera while watching the video replay.

Now the Russians will go to the start on February 14 and will try to compete for qualification at distances 500 m longer for everyone. But both Krylova and Posashkov found the strength to smile after their races. Moreover, they set a kind of record — five Russian journalists came to the mixed zone for them.

— I enjoyed the performance — that's the most important thing, — said Posashkov. — Analyze the controversial episode? On my part, it was like this: I'm driving second, the opponent starts to overtake, and I'm trying to cover him — a collision. Then we had to wait for the judges' decision. We were on an equal footing. So either I'm here or he's being fined. Well, or even mutually. At the same time, I would not change anything. I would have driven as well, but at this moment I tried to work more carefully.

— I was no more worried than at any stage of the World Cup. The stands are the same as at the World Cup," said Alyona Krylova. — But I didn't manage to show my skills. This, of course, is not fun.

Daria Olesik also performed on February 10. The Russian woman took the 13th place after four attempts in a single sled. The gold was won by German Julia Taubitz. Silver went to Elina Eva Botha from Latvia, and American Ashley Farquharson rounded out the top three.