Daria Usacheva and Maya Khromykh, the talented figure skaters of the Eteri Tutberidze group, will not be able to compete in the Russian Grand Prix series due to recovery after injuries. It was finally announced on Thursday. Sport describes the history of female athlete injuries that have just begun to blossom.
In the Olympic season, Usacheva and Khromykh were «dark horses», ready to rush at any moment from behind the backs of the leaders. It was an interesting time back then. It was hard to predict the composition of the women's Olympic troika in Beijing.
Here is the recognized favorite. Here is his main competitor, coming first sometimes. And here are faces unfamiliar to the masses. But give them free rein, you never know where it will lead. The stakes on them are always lower, but what a win can be for someone who takes a risk!If we move away from vulgar comparisons, Dasha and Maya really had everything. None of them were promised the Olympics. However, the story seems to have evolved by itself so that they were supposed to be there. Hardworking, patient, young — ideal material for Tutberidze. By the way, both coaches were very fond of and still love. Yes, neither Dasha nor Maya were in the first row of contenders, even in their own group. At the same time, by the moment X, they approached almost in perfect readiness.
Dasha in the first season among adults became the princess of components. She did not have ultra-difficult jumps, but she had stability. There was also a high second score and a huge risk of leaders going for an unimaginable number of quads. All this looked like the perfect secret to success, or at least something like an excellent starting position in case of competitors' mistakes. Maya, on the other hand, finally jumped both of her quads (toe loop and salchow) and in the preseason she even beat the current future Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova once. It's worth it.The main thing is that both have gone through periods of fall and rise by the Olympic season. At a certain point, they began to feel their own strength. «It will be even better. I realized that I have a chance. I think the judges are always fair. To be honest, I did not expect such high marks. It is both shocking and helps to understand that nothing is impossible. I take a printout and see why they put it that way» .
“Perhaps they will start saying that the team didn’t win because of me,” Khromykh said, recalling the unsuccessful “Channel One Cup” for herself in 2021. “I deleted all social networks, I didn’t go anywhere for a month and a half. they helped me. I calmly trained, understood myself, changed something.»
After him, Maya had a radical change in his career. In the Russian Cup Final, she landed two clean quads for the first time and almost beat Kamila Valieva, who was already called the main contender for the title of the greatest figure skater in history. Khromykh's shares rose sharply. When in an interview she was asked if Maya could now (a meme popular with fans, born from Tutberidze's phrase «Maya can»), she answered unequivocally «yes».
The Beijing Olympics never happened in their lives. Khromykh lost the qualifying championship of Russia and did not get into the Olympic team according to objective criteria. Usacheva was so desperate for the Grand Prix finals in the first part of the season that she did not calculate the load and received a severe hip injury right on the stage in Japan.
There are two versions of the athlete's exact diagnosis. The official one is “torn ligament in the growth zone”, the unofficial one is “fracture of the lesser trochanter of the thigh”. Which of these to believe is up to you. From myself, I can only say that Daria has been recovering from injury and getting in shape for a year already.
The return of figure skaters to competitions this season has been postponed for the time being. Usacheva is still far from combat conditions and will miss the stages of the Russian Grand Prix series in full. Khromykh, who cut the tendons of her fingers at the beginning of autumn, will most likely have time to recover. However, this will happen only to the last stage in Perm. The situation suggests that the career of young girls is at an end. But I would postpone such reasoning.
First, both are now only 16 years old. The current age limit, which the International Skating Union (ISU) approved at the congress this summer, implies a gradual raising of the bar for entry into adult competitions. That is, Daria and Maya would just now begin to compete «in masters». Under these conditions, it is strange to talk about lost time.Secondly, the post-Olympic season is the best time to get out from behind the backs of the main rivals. The entire Olympic trio is going through hard times. Alexandra Trusova is experiencing back problems and is far from her optimal shape. Shcherbakova is still recovering from her knee surgery and has not competed yet. Valieva is still unable to deal with the doping case.
In the long run, it is athletes like Khromykh and Usacheva who can take a leading position instead of current stars. If, of course, they are healthy. On this occasion, there are also great concerns, because the same injury to Daria will almost certainly make itself felt in the future. However, if you give them the opportunity to recover, they may well turn out to be the same athletes with mature skating that the world figure community is so eager to see.
The example of Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, who went through injuries and oblivion to please the young, proves that that it's real. Of course, Lisa is a unique athlete. However, a brilliant mind is able to put on stream everything exclusive and hitherto unseen. Who, if not Eteri Tutberidze, should know about this?
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors