2022 Olympic silver medalist Aleksandra Trusova was unable to perform at the show programs tournament because for the refusal of the organizers. Author Sport discusses why one of the iconic figure skaters in history was suddenly not needed.
In all areas of life where the creator needs recognition, one and the same story is found for all time: a great innovator who raised his art form to an unknown height remains misunderstood by his contemporaries. The outcast revolutionary, the hermit pioneer is a super popular archetype in painting, music, ballet and literature. And even in sports.
Sasha, as it were, summed up the experience of single attempts by female single skaters of the past decades, multiplied it by five and divided it by eternity. In a couple of centuries, a new generation of robotic people, learning a 15-turn sheepskin coat, will melancholy remember a 13-year-old girl from Ryazan — how she learned in three years of her life what many of her predecessors and most of her followers did not learn in ten. Although they will try, keeping Trusova's example in mind.It is all the more surprising to understand that Sasha, with all his records in Russian figure skating, is now in the position of persona non grata. The reasons are vague and, most likely, varied — ranging from the conflict between Sasha's representatives and Channel One and ending with simple human antipathy inside the curly serpentarium. The spike between the main copyright holder (Channel One, which is the general sponsor) and the Russian Figure Skating Federation, along with a bunch of advantages, turned into the most negative consequences of all possible — censorship.
If you are objectionable, you seem to not exist. You will not be given the floor, airtime, and no conditions at all, let alone special ones.
Fresh in my memory is the story about the clarification of the party's policy, which surfaced from the commentator Alexander Grishin live on the live microphone, and Maxim Trankov's answer: «Trusova — everything … for Channel One».
The patch with the logo of the general sponsor, torn from the jacket by Sasha. Strange camera maneuvers that do not show coach Svetlana Sokolovskaya next to Trusova. Sasha's absence from all commercial events of the channel this season — from the jumping tournament in December to the team competition in February. Even for those who are not inclined to build conspiracy theories, all of the above may seem like interconnected things.
On Tuesday, it became known that Trusova could have competed in the recent Russian Challenge show program tournament, but her application was rejected by the organizers, allegedly for not complying with the regulations. According to a source, Sasha planned to go on the ice in a pair with another skater, but she was not allowed to enter such a number.
This is surprising because the regulations of the “Russian Challenge” this season, as a pilot project, clearly had the character of rubber. He stretched in any direction that was necessary — for example, someone was forbidden to use strangers in the room, and someone was allowed to take a whole corps de ballet. Or introduce an additional character. Or use live vocals. The regulations were generally strange, because Anna Pogorilaya somehow ended up on the list of participants without a ready-made idea for the number, and then just as mysteriously disappeared from there — she became a victim of her own sincerity.
As for Trusova, she really had to go through the selection on general terms, because in her treasury of awards and achievements there is no world champion title or the Olympics — only athletes with such achievements received the right to compete without selection. The silver of the Olympic Games with five quadruple jumps, alas, is not quoted here. It's no wonder that out of 39 tournaments in which Sasha participated at a serious level, she was on the podium 37 times and won gold 21 times. Only a few active athletes can boast of such a thing.
In the bottom line, a four-time Guinness World Record holder, a figure skater with a large fan base, one of the most welcome guests at any world-class show, turned out to be unworthy of five minutes of fame on ice of Megasport. Well, let's record this for history and let's cheer for Sasha even more.
Even if Trusova does not appear on central television at all and loses promo support from the federation, her personal popularity and people's love is won't have any effect. On the contrary, from the opposite, it will only grow. For the federation and Channel One, this story is a pure blow with a sharp skate with all his might on his own supporting leg. Skaters will not let you lie — it will hurt for a long time and interfere with healthy life. And the scars will remain.