Cold rolling: Valieva and Petrosyan will meet at the Channel One Cup
Most of the key starts of the 2025/26 season will be held in St. Petersburg - the city has actually become the center of Russian figure skating. The national team's control rentals have already been held here in September, the Russian Championship in December, as well as the Russian Challenge show tournament. The Channel One Cup will also be hosted by Jubilee: on March 21-22, viewers will see several notable returns at once.
The perfect place to return
One of them is related to Adelia Petrosyan. Formally, it is difficult to call her participation a return, but after the Olympics, the figure skater did not compete. She also did not participate in the Grand Prix final - according to Eteri Tutberidze, this start was not part of the athlete's plans. Nevertheless, Petrosyan will be on the ice at the Channel One Cup.
However, the most attention is focused on Kamila Valieva. Earlier this year, she had already participated in the Russian Jumping Championship, but that format involved performing individual elements. Now Valiyeva will have to perform as part of the team and perform a full—fledged program, short or free. This is a fundamentally different level of workload and responsibility.
The Channel One Cup has already played an important role in the skater's career. In 2021, the tournament became one of her first starts at the adult level: then Valieva helped win the jumping segment, and then the team competition as part of Alina Zagitova's team. She also performed here after the 2022 Olympics.
Geographical principle
The format of the tournament has been changed this year. Only singles and singles will perform in both programs. At the same time, restrictions on the elements in the short program have been lifted — in particular, quadruple jumps are allowed.
Sports couples will take to the ice only on the first day, dance duets — on the second. The teams will choose their own captains, after which they will distribute the participants according to the days and types of programs. One figure skater and one figure skater in each team will perform in both short and free programs, the rest — in one of them, but with mandatory participation in additional competitions.
The teams are formed according to the geographical principle: Moscow competes against St. Petersburg. At the same time, some athletes from other regions are distributed among the teams to balance the lineups.
14 million rubles per team
In men's single skating, the St. Petersburg team looks preferable: Peter Gumennik, Evgeny Semenenko and Nikolai Ugozhaev took the first three places in the Grand Prix final. Moscow has Mark Kondratyuk and Grigory Fedorov, who showed more modest results.
But the Moscow team has the advantage in women's single skating. Figure skaters with ultra-C elements are gathered here: Kamila Valieva, Adelia Petrosyan, Maria Zakharova, Daria Sadkova and Alisa Dvoeglazova. St. Petersburg has fewer such athletes — this season, Kamilla Nelyubova and Dina Khusnutdinova consistently performed complex elements.
In ice dancing, the compositions look balanced: the strongest duets are distributed among different teams. In pair skating, Moscow has the advantage — it includes Russian champions Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky, as well as Ekaterina Chikmareva and Matvey Yanchenkov.
In addition to the main rentals, participants will participate in additional competitions: they will demonstrate the maximum number of turns in rotations, compete in todes and supports, and also take part in jumping and team relay races.
The prize fund of the tournament will amount to 14 million rubles for the winning team. Silver medalists will receive half as much.
Competition schedule
Saturday, March 21st
14:00 Sports pairs, women, men: short program. Ice Skill Competition
Sunday, March 22
14:00 Ice dancing, women, men: free program. Jumping battle, team relay races
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
