The first international competition ended with the victory of Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin season 2023/24 in figure skating. The ex-Russian duet noticeably surpassed rivals from the USA, Canada, Israel and other countries.
Perhaps, never before have so many eyes been riveted on the American «beshka» in the semi-provincial Lake Placid. It's all about the headliners of the tournament — the former Russian couple Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin.
The newly minted Georgian figure skaters arouse interest by their presence alone. The debut start of the daughter of Eteri Tutberidze and her handsome partner after changing citizenship is a hot topic. The first public appearance on the ice after a year and a half of quiet hard training. We have not seen a couple for a long time, we could not follow the progress gradually, and then, finally, we got the opportunity to evaluate everything at once.
Lake Placid Dance International, like some kind of championship of a «rural water pump», was not ready for such a hype. The broadcast was not organized, which even Tutberidze complained about. There are still no tournament results with protocols on the ISU website — you have to look for them elsewhere. Unless there are photos of athletes on American forums, and Diana herself posted an amateur video of rhythm dance on social networks.
We put it on the compositions of Michael Jackson, as required by the given theme. We note interesting dances and tracks. It is noticeable that the couple spent a lot of time in the dance class. Everything looks solid and nice. But it's not going to break through yet. Twizzles seemed too slow for such music, and I would also like to see new support. They showed the same entry and exit last season.
An ambitious free dance — «Swan Lake» by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. There is no video of the performance, only a few photos are available on the Internet, where the costumes are visible in general terms. Diana has a black tutu, Gleb has a la ballet leotards and a blouse with voluminous sleeves. Since there is no video yet, you can only evaluate the selection of music. He loudly declares the couple's intention to break into the dance top. With Tchaikovsky, it's not good to beat the thresholds of the last warm-ups.
You should treat your opponents with respect, but the second and third echelons gathered in Lake Placid. Not in terms of the quality of performance or skating of athletes, but in terms of international rating — in ice dancing, such formalities are of great importance.
In Lake Placid, there was not a single participant in the European Championship, the World Championship, and even more so the Olympic Games, except for Diana and Gleb. One has to wonder how Davis and Smolkin managed to lose the rhythm dance, even if only by a point. The best duet among the contenders was Una and Gage Brown, nominally the ninth couple in the USA. They were 11 points behind in the sum of two dances — a real abyss in dancing at any level.
In general, the start of Diana and Gleb turned out to be ambiguous, although they coped with the task without errors. Any place but the first one would be a failure. A victory in such a composition of participants is taken for granted. They seem to have gained nothing competitively.
However, the victorious start of the season and step by step growing confidence are also worth a lot. It is already clear that all this mess with the change of citizenship was not in vain. While Russian skaters can only dream of any international «water pumps» and big tournaments, Diana and Gleb go on the ice and win.