Skater Adelia Petrosyan in the decisive tournament of the season managed to get ahead of not only Sofya Akatieva and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, but also Kamil Valiev. Sport talks about the nature of the birth of a new star in the team of Eteri Tutberidze.
The career of some figure skaters can be observed long before their breakthrough. In the spring of 2020, the junior championship of Russia was held. It was in Tver in the midst of an unprecedented snowfall for March.
The atmosphere of such children's competitions is contradictory. According to the picture, this is a school matinee, and according to experiences, it’s almost a world championship. Moms and grandmothers were sitting in the locker room and in the stands. Their role ranged from nervous waiting as spectators to directly participating in the process. Not only fix your hair and help put on a suit, but also stretch, «jump», «pump up» the hope of the family with important words before the start. >Coaches smoked on the porch and sideways, like crabs on the beach, left the few journalists. Athletes in the corridors twisted triples on a rope and ran from wall to wall. Not children, but gladiators! The future winner of the Final of the Russian Grand Prix series Adelia Petrosyan performed in such scenery. She was then 12 years old.
To some, Adelia resembled one beautiful figure skater. The stern look of big black eyes, the utmost composure, and also a brown dress. An adult and serious dwarf. Well, pure little Zhenya Medvedeva. Eteri Tutberidze did not come to that start. Therefore, Adelia eagerly caught every word of Sergei Dudakov. Just like Zhenya once listened to everything that the coaches told her.
For such a comparison, now a stone can fly from two gardens at once. Fans of figure skaters are sensitive to analogies. Three years later, if Petrosyan somehow reminds Medvedev, it's big black eyes and a fanatical attitude to work. Otherwise, they turned out to be quite different. For Medvedeva herself, such a comparison cannot be offensive. Only great athletes act as standards for the younger generation.
Adelia has enough uniqueness, as a serious athlete should. In three years, she made a giant technical leap — in the quality and quantity of difficult jumps. Quadruple sheepskin coat, quad loop, triple axel and even quad flip. For example, even the Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova did not have such a set. While taking a break due to Alexander Trusov's back problems, and Valieva has not returned to her maximum arsenal, Petrosyan has the most difficult jumping application in the world.
Adelia was not the favorite of the competitions in Tver, which we recall today. Everyone expected victory from Veronika Zhilina, who then trained with Tutberidze. Petrosyan took only the ninth final place, but did not make a single visible mistake at the box office. Among the skaters who bypassed her was Alina Gorbacheva — the opening of the current season. And Elizaveta Berestovskaya — a girl who shone brightly in childhood, but did not rise to an adult level due to back problems. Also Maria Dmitrieva, now playing for Israel. Petrosyan was not the best at that time, she did not stand out with some superelements, special skating or artistry. Just a pretty and diligent girl, of which there are many. The more valuable is the position in which she is now.
Figure skating is the toughest selection that does not stop for a single day. How many athletes who occupy places at the end of the top ten and below in children's championships end their careers. Overboard are supertalents with a high jump, a soft skate, a captivating presentation and many more advantages. They do not break through, because there is not enough perseverance, sports arrogance, patience, health, and sometimes good luck. As soon as at least one brick falls out of the turret of success, it crumbles to the ground. And not always the athlete and the adults supporting him have enough strength to start collecting everything anew.
As the last three years have shown, everything is fine with Adelia with ambition, perseverance, and luck. Even when her health fails, and in some way there is a lack of natural data, she gets it thanks to her character.Petrosyan entered the Grand Prix Final as a fourth substitute after several withdrawals. She formally could not participate in it, because she performed only at one stage in Sochi, and missed the second due to injury. But first, Trusova withdrew from the Final. Then there were Ksenia Sinitsyna and Anastasia Zinina, and the third substitute, Maria Paramonova, performed at the «Children of Asia» on the dates of the tournament. So Petrosyan got a place. Luck, some would say. Or an administrative resource? Maybe someone will like her? Are there any patrons? Perhaps there is.
The first is the ability to recover in a short time after an injury. She demonstrated this when, already in early December, she went out to train after a leg injury and at the end of December she competed at the Russian Championship. The second is the ability to learn new elements and insert them into the program as the season progresses. A good example is the quadruple flip, performed for the first time in her career by Adele in the Grand Prix Final. The third is a fighting character and the absence of fear of authorities.
Such patronage, like luck, does not appear just like that. Adelia, still quite a baby, came to the night ice at mass skating in order to puff alone over the unyielding senior triples. And in the morning I went to a regular training session at Khrustalny, where I showed what I had learned. The habit of plowing will definitely bring results at a distance. It seems that Petrosyan's distance has just begun.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.