Tragedy in Washington overshadows the results of the European Figure Skating Championships
The European Figure Skating Championships ended in Tallinn. The competitions themselves took place against the backdrop of a terrible tragedy in the United States where eight American figure skaters and four coaches, our former compatriots, died in a plane crash. Realnoe Vremya sums up the competitions and remembers the victims of the tragedy with a Soviet past.
Volodin's gold at the European Championships after his victory in Kazan
The tragedy in Washington occurred right in the middle of the European Championships when all of its participants had completed their short programmes and were preparing to perform their free programmes. As a result, some may later refer to the shock of what happened.
Our former compatriots who continue their careers in sports achieved their greatest success at the competitions in pair skating. Nikita Volodin's gold, representing Germany with Minerva Hase, is the return of the Bundesteam to the top step of the European podium he left when Alyona Savchenko left sport. The graduate of the Ukrainian figure skating school carried the German pairs with both Robin Szolkowy and former Frenchman Bruno Massot, and now she has passed the winning baton to former St Petersburg resident Volodin. It is noteworthy that Volodin won his previous victory in Kazan at the 2018 Russian Junior Championships. Before the start, junior coach Alexei Sokolov said that his charges began skating together in January: “In fact, their programmes are still raw. We spent a long time looking for a partner for Nikita because there are a lot of girls in single skating — both jumping and trained, but they do not want to go into pair skating, believing in their strength to the last. They think that they will always have time to switch to pair skating. And then they come when the train has already left.”
Without Russians, pair skating threatens to disappear
Sokolov said that initially they worked on improving the elements, without picking on any rough edges that would eventually need to be corrected. The free program was set literally half a month before the start of the Russian championship among seniors, which they eventually won.
In third place at the European Championships are the Russian pair Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, competing for Georgia. Muscovite Berulava began his career in pair skating with Kazanka Alina Butayeva winning bronze with her at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games.
The International Figure Skating Federation supports interest in the sport as best it can, and initiated the inclusion of the discipline in the Olympic program. But athletes are needed, and this is where Russia comes to the rescue. When our country cannot help, competitions are held without pairs, as, for example, at the Winter Universiade in Italy. There were no pairs at the previous Universiade in Lake Placid, as well as at the 2017 Universiade in Almaty.
The home Universiade in Krasnoyarsk in 2019 was a Russian get-together, when three Russian and one Kazakh pair competed. As soon as Russia and Belarus were suspended from international competitions, pair skating was on the verge of extinction. It is difficult to find two pairs who are studying at the same time at the Universiades. Seven stages were held as part of the junior competitions, of which there was no pair skating in Slovenia, Thailand and China. In China, where they trained the current Olympic champions Xu Wenjing and Han Cong, silver and bronze medallists of the Olympic Games in the aforementioned Turin, there are currently no worthy pairs.
Repeating the scenario of the tragedy of 45 years ago
Now, regarding the tragedy in Washington. American figure skating, especially in terms of juniors, is predominantly a post-Soviet story. The most famous children of our former figure skaters: Ilya Malinin (son of Tatyana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov), Anthony Ponomarenko (his parents are Olympic champions Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko), Andrew Torgashev (parents Ilona Melnichenko and Artyom Torgashev), Annabelle Morozov (father Nikolai Morozov). Among the new ones currently performing, 11-year-old Skyler Lautowa-Peguero, daughter of former Russian Yulia Lautova, stands out. She is the ex-wife of Roman Kostomarov, but she gave birth to her daughter in her marriage to an American.
Fortunately, none of them were on the ill-fated flight, but the coaching staff was entirely made up of our former compatriots. The least known of them is Alexander Kirsanov, 46 years. Little known is also Inna Volyanskaya, a former pair skater remembered by fans of Soviet figure skating and coach Tatyana Tarasova. She was among those skaters who were unwittingly experimented on by representatives of the Soviet coaching school and sports science in the late 70s. This was a bet on youth Eteri Tutberidze then successfully made and continues to make.
The bet on youth was only partially justified
To be fair, betting on children did not start in the USSR, perhaps the first successful experience in this regard was in the GDR, when Jan Hofmann, 12, debuted at the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, and then extended his career for another 12 years, ending it only at 24, as vice-champion of the Olympics in Lake Placid and world champion in 1980. Four Olympics is one more than his contemporary Irina Rodnina. In Soviet figure skating, this experience was first repeated by Yelena Vodorezova who also had a fairly long sports career, with one caveat: she left the sport due to a serious illness. Only after overcoming it, she returned after a three-year break.
Lucky were Marina Pestova, 13, and Marina Cherkasova who managed to get into the USSR national team winning Olympic medals and awards at the World and European Championships. But Nelli Chervotkina, 13, Marina Avstriyskaya, 14, and Inna Volyanskaya who debuted at adult championships at such a young age, were unable to fully fulfil their potential.
On the one hand, one can understand the desire of the national team coaching staff: young athletes quickly brought maximum results, the same situation was repeated in swimming, where schoolgirls won gold medals at the World and European Championships. They did not strive to get married, which led to the retirement of fairly young Natalia Donhauer, who married basketball player Yuri Pavlov, or Irina Chernyayeva, who became the wife of hockey player Vyacheslav Anisin and gave birth to future Olympic champion Marina Anisina. But leaving the sport, having barely reached student age, often did not allow the athletes to be used even during one Olympic cycle. Health problems led to the retirement.
Regarding Volyanskaya, who performed with Valery Spiridonov, her highest achievements were third place in the 1980 national championship, at the age of 15, and victory in the 1982 Winter Spartakiade of the Peoples of the USSR, when she was 17. Irina Rodnina with Alexander Zaytsev and Marina Cherkasova with Sergey Shakhray were not at the championship, and that bronze did not allow Volyanskaya with Spiridonov to start even at the European Championship. And there was no top three at the Spartakiade, which at that time was preparing for the World Championship. Therefore, the Spartakiade was remembered for the quadruple jump performed by former Kazan resident Alexander Fadeyev, who performed outside the standings, the victory of Anna Kondrashova, the current coach of the Estonian national team, who performed four triple jumps, and the first triple Lutz in the history of Soviet figure skaters, which was in Marina Serova's programme.
That Spartakiade became the first sad event in Volyanskaya's sports life. As Zelenodolsk skier Anatoly Romanov told our newspaper: “The tragedy occurred at the central stadium during the opening. The organizers, having sold tickets for the opening ceremony, also let in additional people.” As a result, a crush was created in which about a hundred people were injured, and six died.
After leaving the country, Volyanskaya became a partner in Alexey Tikhonov's ice shows. Her partner and husband Valery Spiridonov left her for another figure skater Elena Garanina, who skated with Igor Zavozin. Their son Maxim Zavozin had previously skated for Hungary, and their son with Spiridonov, Maxim Spiridonov, by the will of fate almost ended up in a crashed plane.
The deceased Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov lived a very happy sporting life. They have already entered the history of figure skating as the first winners of the Grand Prix Final. Medals of all denominations: gold, silver and bronze at the end of six world championships, the most fortunate of which was 1994. According to an unwritten tradition, the winners of the Olympic start in Lillehammer did not participate in it, and Shishkova and Naumov for a rare time beat Marina Yeltsova and Andrey Bushkov. In other respects, they followed them in international competitions, also yielding to the leaders of those years — Yekaterina Gordeyeva and Sergey Grinkov, Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriyev.
Incidentally, Shishkova and Naumov are the students of Lyudmila Velikova, who also trained Alexey Sokolov, Volodin's former coach. The participants of the two Olympics could only complain that professionals were returned to the ice at the Games in Lillehammer, and Gordeyeva and Grinkov won gold, which was claimed exclusively by students of the St. Petersburg figure skating school. A new generation grew up by the Olympics in Nagano: Maria Kazakova — Dmitriyev, Elena Berezhnaya — Anton Sikharulidze leaving no place for Shishkova and Naumov on the national team. In the end, they left for America where their son Maxim Naumov was born. At the recent US Championships, he took fourth place after Ilya Malinin, Andrew Torgashev and Camden Pulkkinen squeezed in between the Russians.
