The first one came in: Petrosyan successfully rolled back the short program
Adelia Petrosyan successfully made her Olympic debut. The ward of Eteri Tutberidze skated the short program cleanly, she succeeded in all jumps, including lutz and cascade. The judges rated her rental at 72.89 points (equipment — 40.44; components — 32.45). Experts believe that the scores could have been higher, but even these allow us to count on a medal.
Without Tutberidze
The issue with Adelia's coach was in limbo literally until the very last moment. When Eteri Tutberidze appeared on the Olympic Games website as a figure skater mentor, it seemed that everything had been resolved successfully. In addition, Tutberidze attended two Petrosyan training sessions. However, a few hours before the start of the short program, the IOC press service announced that Eteri Georgievna would not be able to accompany the Russian at the competitions themselves.
"Ms. Tutberidze was accredited for the 2026 Winter Olympics using her Georgian passport as a coach of the Georgian National Olympic Committee, and therefore no verification was required," the IOC press service said. — As at all Olympic Games, during training, figure skating athletes can seek advice from other coaches they know well. During the competition itself, athletes can only be coached by accredited representatives of their teams.
Nevertheless, before the performance, Adelia still talked with Tutberidze at the side. However, the coach quickly went to the other side of the rink.
As in the case of Peter Gumennik, Adelia performed at the very beginning due to the lack of an international rating. Before the Russians, only the representative of Belarus, Victoria Safonova, took to the ice.
The Russian woman's personal fans also showed up on the podium. However, without our tricolor. Petrosyan took to the ice to a standing ovation. Even during training and warm-up, it was clear that the skater was betting on a clean rental: there were no ultra-si elements in her application.
And, admittedly, this bet worked. All non-jump elements have been completed to the fourth level of difficulty. First, the judges sent the rotation for review, placing the third one. But then they put everything back in its place.
Great rental
I was also pleased with the ratings: 72.89 points. By the way, this is more than 18 points more than Safonova, who was the first speaker. There is a possibility that Petrosyan will compete with the leaders of world figure skating in recent years — Kaori Sakamoto and Amber Glenn.
"I really hope that I will be able to cross paths with them in the warm—up [in the free program]," Petrosyan told reporters. — It has not been possible to do this before. To be honest, there is no sense of competition with them yet. Somehow so separated from them that I haven't even seen them yet. But, of course, I will be very pleased to be with them and perform. Did Peter Gumennik give advice? He supported me, but he didn't give me advice. Every athlete has their own approach.
Olympic vice-champion Alexander Enbert praised the performance of the Russian.
— Great rental, great scores. In general, everything is expected. Congratulations to Adelia, she did well. I am very happy for her, and I wish her good luck in the free skate. In this form, there are good chances to compete for a medal," Enbert told Izvestia.
After the performance, Petrosyan sat in the company of her choreographer Daniil Gleikhengauz and smiled broadly. And there was a reason for a good mood, of course. At the same time, Olympic champion, Honored coach of Russia Alexander Zhulin believes that the scores could have been higher.
— The audience greeted her perfectly, maybe the whole stadium was Russian, — Alexander Zhulin told Izvestia. — Adelia skated beautifully. Wonderful, mature rental. It's clear that she's in great shape. At the same time, her grades were cut. They could have been higher. Alas. Now we will wait for the rest of the results.
The women will present a free program on Thursday, February 19.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
