Rental plan: what to expect from Adelia Petrosyan at the Olympics

In the final week of the Milan Olympics, the Russian national team has several chances to get on the podium and qualify for the medal standings. Savely Korostelev and Pyotr Gumennik stopped in millimeters from the bronze. The main chance now is women's figure skating and Adelia Petrosyan. The main argument in favor of success is that our team has not lost this sport at the Olympics for 12 years, and Eteri Tutberidze's car is working. But now everything is different. About the chances of a Russian woman for a medal — in the material of Izvestia.

The coach is nearby

This time, there are not three Russians, but one, and she starts in the first warm-up of the short program and went through a very difficult year in 2025. To be precise, Adelia does not start first, but second — the Belarusian Victoria Safonova will come out first.

The main question is whether Petrosyan will perform the triple axel (this is especially important for the short program) and the quadruple (for the free program). Judging by how Humennik was judged, you can't get a medal without at least one of these components, and if you fight for gold, you need either both or many fours.

Adelia's last attempts at these jumps at the Russian Championships turned out to be contradictory. The triple axel was rather a success — clean in the short, in the free with an error, but due to the large difference in the base with a double, it was still profitable to do it. Two fours led to a fall. In the media materials about the Tutberidze group, the topic of suboptimal form and microtrauma constantly comes up in backstage conversations. And when you're not in optimal shape, the psychological factor that's present in Adelia's case increases. We have already seen his influence in men's competitions.

Before the short program, Adelia has a dilemma — whether to jump the triple axel. It seems that the skating rink in Yasenevo (where Eteri Tutberidze's school is located) has been struggling with this issue for hours. On the one hand, you have to stand out when you have the second starting number. On the other hand, you can lose the entire tournament with the first of the 10 jumping elements.

Petrosyan arrived in Milan on February 15, but did not attend evening training, preferring to recover. Another neutral athlete, Victoria Safonova from Belarus, presented her program. What's good is that one of Tutberidze's staff coaches, choreographer Daniil Gleikhengauz, will be watching the jumps during training at the edge, and this can definitely be considered a positive start to the mission. Gleichengauz was not invited to the Beijing selection, and Valery Artyukhov sat next to Petrosyan, but he is still a formal escort.

"I would like to wish Adelia good luck so that she does the best she can," said Elena Radionova, bronze medalist at the World Figure Skating Championships, in an interview with Izvestia. — I believe in Adelia because she has a very strong character. She has proven more than once that she can fight. The most important thing is a clean rental. I think it's clear that our guys will be judged quite harshly.

There is no room for error, Radionova stressed, and expressed confidence that if Petrosyan performs well, he can get into the top three winners.

Last chances: will our athletes be able to win medals at the Olympics

The biggest hopes are for Adelia Petrosyan, Savely Korostelev and Nikita Filippov.

The issue of allowances

The only tournament that can be used to predict the score is the Olympic selection in Beijing. There, Petrosyan scored 68.72 points, making a weak lutz. That is, with good performance, you can count on 70-71 at best. A lot depends on the allowances of the judges, who did not particularly encourage the neutral Humennik.

Kaori Sakamoto scored 78.88 points in the team short program for Japan, Alice Liu (USA) — 74.90. There will be several more skaters who can perform the triple axel: American Amber Glenn, Japanese Ami Nakai, Korean Lee Hae In. None of them, however, should score 80 points even with him. So, in any case, everything will be decided by her free skate to "Tango Buenos Aires" on February 19.

And on the 17th, at 20.59 Moscow time, our figure skater will play Michael Jackson. And her performance, without exaggeration, will be watched by the whole country. The main thing is that Adelia herself perceived these rentals as an ordinary training session in Yasenevo.

— I would like her to be judged fairly. But it's even funny to talk about it! — Honored coach of the USSR Tatyana Tarasova noted in an interview with Izvestia. — I want Adelia to skate cleanly, and we will all be happy. Because it is impossible to depend on other people's unfair people. And the fact that they are unfair, we have already seen from Humennik. They invited us to the Olympics to kill us, but we won't kill ourselves and we'll keep working.

Bookmakers consider Sakamoto to be the main contender for the gold medal at the 2026 Olympic Games. They estimate the probability of victory for the Japanese at 42%, for Adelia Petrosyan at 33%. Also among the favorites are the representatives of the USA Liu and Glenn, the Japanese Nakai and Monae Chiba.