The Great Ice Way: Russians return to international competitions

A new world figure skating season starts in China on August 20-22. The first tournament will be the Junior Grand Prix series. For the first time since 2022, Russian athletes will take part in it. Our skaters were allocated four quotas, one in each sport: men's and women's single skating, ice dancing and pairs. We analyze the composition of the national team and the main intrigues of the tournament.

The Russian team at the Grand Prix in China

The first stage of the junior Grand Prix Figure Skating series will be held in the city of Xi'an in the center of China. By the standards of the People's Republic of China, the city is not the largest — only in the 15th place in terms of population (only 11 million people), but it is known all over the world for its terracotta army and 3,100 years of history. And once upon a time, Xi'an occupied the first place in terms of area and population in the world. It is here that Russian figure skaters will have to prove their world leadership again.

The Junior Grand Prix series consists of seven stages, each athlete has the right to apply for two. The top six in points qualify for the finals, which will be held in December at the same time as the adult finals. The only juniors in the world with higher status are the World Championships and the Youth Olympic Games.

Since Russia has not been represented at international competitions for four years, it now has a minimum quota for all tournaments. In the case of the junior Grand Prix, this is one representative (or a pair) in each event. In the future, this quota will probably be expanded if the Russians perform well this season. Juniors will start, as well as adults, in a neutral status.

In all sports except girls, the winners of the Russian championship went to China. Elena Kostyleva was initially announced in the women's category, but due to injury and "unwillingness to let the national team down," she withdrew and gave way to the second number of the country, Sofia Dzepka.

Who will compete with the Russians for medals

Without false modesty, we can assume that ours has the right to count on four victories. A bold prediction follows from the fact that they have a solid advantage over their opponents in all types. Of course, junior skating is always a place for sensations from little—known athletes, but technically the Russians are far ahead. Lazarev jumps five fours in the free program, which is done by a few even among adults. Dzepka also performs a quadruple, but impresses with plastic and beautiful skating.Polina Seseleva/Egor Karnaukhov knows how to do a quadruple twist. Maria Fefelova/Artem Valov can trump the fact that one of the programs was staged by the world—famous French choreographer Benoit Richaud - such status nuances are very important in dancing.

In addition, only the Chinese pair Youxuan Chen/Dong Yingbo was present in the application in all disciplines from the top 5 of the World Championships, and their personal best is much lower than the results (albeit national) of Seseleva./Karnaukhova Street. But among the Russians' rivals at the first stage is Victoria Barakhtina, who is familiar from tournaments in Russia (now Vika plays for Canada and trains with Brian Orser). The men have a Muscovite, Samir Temergalin, representing Uzbekistan. There are our people in dancing, and Belarusians will also perform in a neutral status — Vasily Barakhovsky, for example, performed at the stages of the Russian Grand Prix. But even with that experience, he's unlikely to be able to challenge Lazarev. We can only lose to ourselves.

Quads, The Matrix, and new programs

Many of our juniors have really interesting programs. Sergey Davydov's ward Lev Lazarev brought to Xi'an a "Bolero" proposed by the coach, and a "Little Prince" from a young and promising choreographer Artem Fedorchenko. Ekaterina Moiseeva's student Sofia Dzepka will appear very different: in the short program she will show the ballet "Raymonda", and in the free program she will be Trinity from "The Matrix" — and again the free program was staged by Fedorchenko.

In dancing, the free program of Fefelova and Valova was staged by Benoit Richaud, and he made incredible advances to the Russian duo.

"I can't wait for the whole world to see you compete and feel the magic you create on the ice. I've never worked with such a young dance couple before, with such a level of skill, maturity, and understanding of movement. What you already have at that age is very rare. You have a great future ahead of you. This is just the beginning," he wrote in Russian on social media.

Shesheleva and Karnaukhov will use equipment in pairs. They not only do a quadruple twist (although the quadruple elements are not very expensive and risky), but also tried a cascade of three triple jumps.

The Russians have already arrived in Xi'an and started their first training sessions — Lazarev and Dzepka performed the quads and, judging by the percentage of successful jumps, are in good shape. Lev starts in the short program 22nd out of 26, Sofia got the 23rd starting number out of 34, Polina and Egor - 8th out of 10, Maria and Artyom — 7th out of 18.