World Figure Skating Championships 2023 took place without the participation of the Russian team, which otherwise would add to the collection of medals. Watching international tournaments without our athletes is also unusual because Russia stood at the origins of large-scale competitions among figure skaters.
The first world championship was held in 1896 in St. Petersburg. A year earlier, the International Skating Union founded the figure skating committee, which was entrusted with the organization of world championships. The group included sports figure Vyacheslav Sreznevsky, who later headed the Russian Olympic Committee. He enjoyed high prestige in the international community and lobbied for the holding of the first World Cup in the capital of the Russian Empire.
The tournament lasted only one day and bore little resemblance to modern competitions. On February 9, 1896, only four athletes competed for gold in St. Petersburg: German Gilbert Fuchs, Austrian Gustav Hugel and two Russians — Georgy Sanders and Nikolai Poduskov. The favorite was the German, who came to Russia in the status of the bronze medalist of the European Championship./
Girls then were not allowed to official competitions. They appeared at the world championships only in 1902, when the Englishwoman Madge Sayers showed up for the tournament. She managed to get ahead of almost all men and take second place.The Yusupov Garden was chosen as the venue for the first World Cup. For many years it was popular with locals for summer pastime, and was empty in winter. The situation improved in 1865 when an ice rink was first filled there. It was here that the first Russian professional figure skaters trained.
Participants competed in three disciplines: compulsory skating, free program and special figures. The World Cup was covered by the local press, some notes have survived to this day. Journalists noted that Fuchs «amazed the audience with the performance of basic figures.» Confidence and frequency of movement brought him a triumph in the first competition. The German also won the free program thanks to a perfect one and a half turn jump and a clean landing on an outstretched leg.
Fuchs failed to shine in the final form of the competition. Russian Georgy Sanders accurately performed the elements of «cross with a crescent», «lyre», «flowers» and «snake», which were more difficult than those of opponents. It is worth clarifying that the performance of special figures is not an ordinary program rental. In this discipline, the participants cut out the desired patterns on the ice with their skates.
Fuchs became the world champion in the sum of three events. Hugel won the silver medal and Sanders won the bronze. It turns out that the Russians failed at the home tournament, taking the last two places. Since then, the world championships have been held annually, interrupted only by wars and force majeure events like the coronavirus. formed differently. Poduskov competed at the open championship of the Russian Empire in the «art of skating» and worked as an engineer, not having achieved great success in sports. Sanders also left a significant mark in figure skating.
Georgy became the author and artist of those very special figures. He was the first in Russia to perform single-rib elements. Sanders was the author of figures for Nikolai Panin-Kolomenka, who in 1908 in London won Russia's first Olympic gold. Sanders was even invited to referee international tournaments, among which were the Olympics.
Since then, Russia has hosted the World Figure Skating Championships four times, where it has never been able to win gold medals in the men's singles. skating.