Ice and circuses: the main intrigues of the Russian national team's test runs

The Russian national team's test screenings on September 19-20 at the "CSKA Arena" will be held for the first time in several years against the background of the return of a large group of Russian figure skaters to the international arena. Some leaders will arrive in Moscow after the September ISU Challengers, while others have yet to perform abroad. Kamila Valieva, Mark Kondratyuk, Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin are still deprived of this opportunity due to the situation with a neutral status, but they also intend to show their readiness for the season. There will be no ratings or places at the test rentals, but it is here that the main cast will present programs with which they will spend at least the next six months.

No grades, but with a full program

Test screenings are a traditional pre—season screening: skaters show short and free programs in public, experts evaluate their readiness and make recommendations before official starts. This is not a competition: the final points and places are not awarded (at least publicly). But this is traditionally an important stage, formally completing the offseason and mobilizing athletes. Sometimes, based on the results of these performances, decisions are made to redesign the programs or significantly adjust the training process.

Among the most famous participants this year are singles players Adelia Petrosyan, Alexandra Trusova, Kamila Valieva, Alisa Dvoeglazova, Peter Gumennik, Vladislav Dikidzhi, Evgeny Semenenko, Mark Kondratyuk, pairs Alexandra Boikova/ Dmitry Kozlovsky and Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Gallyamov, dancers Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin and Vasilisa Kaganovskaya/Maxim Nekrasov.

Daria Sadkova, the winner of the 2025 Russian Championship, will not be there: after an ankle operation in August, she returned to the ice only in mid–September, after which it was announced that she would skip skating. Matvey Vetlugin can be seen at the Lombardia Trophy challenger in Italy these days.

Petrosyan changed headquarters, Trusova started in Japan

One of the main intrigues of the rentals is related to Adelia Petrosyan. In July, the three-time champion of Russia left the group of Eteri Tutberidze, and then began to prepare with coach Inna Goncharenko. The short program for the 2026 Olympic Games was presented by Angelika Krylova, and the free program was presented by Artem Fedorchenko. In the second case, the single player intends to embody the image of Arya Stark from "Game of Thrones". At the same time, the figure skater does not hide that she continues to experience health problems and is far from optimal shape.

"I will be happy if I can perform this season," Petrosyan wrote on her telegram channel.

Adelia did not perform at the international starts of the current season. But she has an ISU neutral status, and in the published application for the October Trialeti Trophy in Batumi she is listed among the participants. If the plans do not change, this will be her first official international start after the 2026 Games.

Trusova has already passed her first foreign test: at the Kinoshita Group Cup in Tokyo, she became the second, scoring 221.06 points.

— The scores are good, the second one again. I practice as well as I perform. We will work and improve. It's normal for September," Trusova said in an interview with "Izvestia" after the tournament in Japan.

"Alexandra"s short program for the soundtrack to the movie "Lara" was directed by Benoit Richaud, and she skates her free program to music from the TV series "Very Strange Things." Trusova's next international start after Moscow has not yet been officially confirmed, but she clearly expects to receive an invitation to one of the stages of the "Grand Prix".

The men have fresh international experience from three leaders at once. In Tokyo, Dikiji won with 265.68 points, Semenenko became the third (253.30), Humennik — the sixth (236.25). It was Vladislav's first serious adult start abroad. His free program Feeling the Sound was directed by Nikita Mikhailov, and the image is built around the restless motif of Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream".

— I'm trying to grab onto something, I'm trying to convey this fear with my movements. ""And that's why the film "The Scream" was so suitable," Dikigi said in an interview with Izvestia.

Peter Gabriel's short program My Body Is a Cage was directed by She-Lynn Bourne. An arbitrary soundtrack by Max Richter for the film "Hamnet" was made by Daniil Gleikhengauz.

— Peter Gumennik is Shakespeare. We were very touched by the story told in "Hamnet" movie, and that's what we took as a basis," Gleichenhauz told Sport24.

After the Moscow rentals, Semenenko was announced at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial in Bratislava on September 24-27. Dikiji received an invitation to the ISU Grand Prix in Shenzhen on November 6-8. Humennik does not have a confirmed next international start on September 17: his name is not yet on the current list of reserves for the Grand Prix stages.

A separate story is Valieva. Camila is being trained by Svetlana Sokolovskaya, and Benoit Richaud gave her a short program. In August, the athlete went to his training camp in France to finalize the staging, including for the international season. But on September 10, the ISU announced that Valieva and Kondratyuk no longer meet the requirements for neutral athletes, and Stepanova and Bukin were not allowed to compete under the AIN flag. Therefore, the next official starts of these skaters after the rentals can only be Russian.

The Russian calendar will lead to Chelyabinsk

In pair skating, Boikova and Kozlovsky have the most extensive international practice. In two weeks, they won the Kinoshita Group Cup in Tokyo (203.66 points) with a clean quadruple throw, followed by the John Nicks Pairs International in Norwood, USA (198.66). The couple staged a new short program at Roman Hagenauer's in Montreal — and there are still some questions about it. For Alexandra and Dmitry, the test rentals will be the third opening weekend in a row — for them they made a trip around the world on the route Moscow – Tokyo – Boston – Moscow.

Mishina and Gallyamov have a different season. They received neutral status only on September 3, and they did not have time for the Kinoshita Group Cup. In Moscow, the couple is going to show a new short program, which they worked on with Angelika Krylova for two weeks in the spring. The first confirmed international start of this duo after the rentals is the Trialeti Trophy in Batumi in early October.

After the domestic round-ups in Russia, the Grand Prix series will begin: the adult stages will be held on October 16-19 and 22-26, from October 30 to November 2, November 6-9 and 13-16. Then on November 27-30, the national jumping elements championship will be held at the "Navka Arena", and on December 16-21, Chelyabinsk will host the Russian championship. By tradition, it is the main qualifying start for the European Championship (it is scheduled for January 25-31, 2027 in Lausanne). Given the limited quotas, the battle for places in the national team is going to be very serious — and it's actually starting now.

In terms of the number of returning stars, new programs, and newfound international prospects, the 2026/27 season looks like the most intriguing for Russian figure skating in the last five years. The 2026 Olympics, of course, was the main start of the last cycle, but our representation in figure skating there was limited to Petrosyan and Humennik, both of whom took sixth place. Now there are significantly more plots. The control rentals will not give any medals or standings, but they will become the gateway to the new season for the main domestic stars and will set the main themes of the coming months.

The schedule of control passes of the Russian national team

September 19th (Saturday)

14:00 — women, short program
15:15 — men, short program
16:25 — pair skating, short program
17:30 — ice dancing, rhythm dance

September 20th (Sunday)

14:00 — women's free program
15:30 — men's free program
16:50 — pair skating, free skate
18:00 — ice dancing, free dance