Quadruple is not for the future: Petrosyan risked, but was left without an Olympic medal

Adelia Petrosyan was unable to continue the winning streak of the Russians at the Olympics. The 18-year-old student of Eteri Tutberidze and Daniil Gleikhengauz took a justified risk with the ultra-si element and failed to complete the quadruple toe loop. Petrosyan took the sixth place (total of 214.53 points). American Alice Liu became the champion (226.79), Japanese Kaori Sakamoto won silver (224.90), and her compatriot Ami Nakai won bronze (219.16).

Medal risk

Adelia Petrosyan was in fifth place after the women's short program, as Mikhail Shaidorov, the representative of Kazakhstan, who eventually became the Olympic champion, followed the same schedule.

Olympic performances are never easy, as the undisputed favorite Ilya Malinin, who failed the free skate and ended up only eighth, has already shown by his own, alas, deplorable example. Many other participants of the singles tournament could not cope with the excitement.

It was even more difficult for Petrosyan — she was competing under a neutral flag and could have been left without the support of a coach in Milan altogether, Daniil Gleichengauz somehow miraculously received accreditation at the last moment.

Due to an injury, Adelia was unable to perform the elements of ultra-C that we have become accustomed to in recent seasons. She also did without a triple axel in the short program. Anyway, the Russian woman stopped trying to jump it a few days before the Olympics. The only thing I didn't say goodbye to was the four—piece sheepskin coat - it never made it to the box office once during the season, but there were still some chances to make it.

Judging by the training, the tactics in the free program were as follows: Petrosyan enters the quad, if it turns out well and she manages to attach another jump to it to make a cascade, then she does the second quad. If a gross error occurs on the first one, then only triple ones follow.

It was possible to roll back only with jumps in three turns, so that the performance was clean and error-free. But in this case, Adelia risked losing: almost all of her competitors also skate with triples. If the elements were ideally executed, they would receive higher allowances and components due to the fact that they have already performed internationally, but Petrosyan has not. This is her second tournament outside of Russia in the last five years.

And indeed, everything went according to plan, but not in the most pleasant way for Adelia. In the warm-up before the free skate, she performed two quadruple sheepskin coats, one of which was in a cascade. But the quad did not work out at the box office, which was, however, expected — the Russian woman does not have such a large percentage of successful attempts to perform ultra-si. Then she did everything well, but the first fall both spoiled the impression and reduced the technique. 141 points is a good result, Petrosyan got less at the qualifying tournament, although she skated there without super—complicated elements. But it still wasn't enough to get a medal.

At first, Adelia lost to American Amber Glenn, who skated before her, only 38 hundredths. Then the Russian was beaten by other competitors. According to the judges, only champion Alice Liu skated almost unmistakably, while the rest had technical flaws. But due to the components, they turned out to be higher.

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I want to support Adelia here. Yes, she couldn't get on the podium and skate cleanly, but I don't want her to blame herself the way she's doing it now.

— I'm a little ashamed of myself, the federation and the fans. It will be psychologically difficult to return to Russia after such a rental," the figure skater said in the mixed zone.

— We have to support Adelia and thank her. She fought and fought. I saw her interview, she's upset. She's a young girl. Adelia entered the season with an injury, but she did everything she could at these Games," Ilya Averbukh, silver medalist at the 2002 Olympics, world and European champion in ice dancing, told Izvestia. — Was the risk of including a quadruple jump in the program justified? There is always a task to win. Without the quadruple jump, it was impossible to count on the podium. I think everything was done correctly. It didn't work out, it's a sport.

Another drama unfolded in the battle between Alice Liu and Kaori Sakamoto. The Japanese woman really wanted to win — she remained the leader for most of the Olympic cycle. But Kaori made a fatal mistake — she made a bad trip from the triple flip and lost one of the cascades, as a result of which she lost about seven points. The American performed the program cleanly and won, the gap was only two points.

66 year old series

The result of the performances of Russian figure skaters in Italy is two sixth places. The position is the same, but the rentals turned out to be completely different — Peter Gumennik, according to many fans and experts, was given too low a rating in the free program. On the contrary, Adelia was treated fairly loyally, but she was let down by the ill-fated quadruple sheepskin coat.

"Adelia did a great job," Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia. — She was the only one who took the risk! It didn't work out. Things happen. She skated great. But the competition was very strong. And this time she wasn't the strongest. It's a sport. Congratulations to the American and Japanese women. And we wish our Adelia to be on the podium next time.

Despite this, Peter's result is the best for Russian singles since 2010. Adelia has the worst record since the Olympics in Vancouver. The last three Games in women's single skating were won exclusively by Russians — Adelina Sotnikova, Alina Zagitova and Anna Shcherbakova, and the last two, like Petrosyan, trained with Eteri Tutberidze.

In Milan, the 66-year series of medals of our figure skaters at the Games was also interrupted — however, couples and dance duets did not perform this time.