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The second stage of the Russian Grand Prix in figure skating ended in scandal. Alena Kostornaya was publicly outraged by the judging after her performance with Georgy Kunitsa. The Sport correspondent discusses the underlying reason for what happened.
Watching Alena Kostornaya’s speech, full of genuine resentment, I remembered a story from more than ten years ago. Then a very notable single skater tried her luck in pair skating. Not by outstanding results, but by special external data. It was Katharina Gerboldt, who decided to perform with Alexander Enbert. For a moment, the future silver medalist of the team tournament of the 2018 Olympics and the champion of the Ice Age.
There was something similar in that story. Herboldt was one of the ten strongest singles skaters in Europe. At one point, she decided to change discipline and joined hands with Enbert, who already had, although not very rich, experience in pair skating. The skaters quickly mastered the “basic” of joint pair elements. We learned how to make emissions. And with the jumps, everything was generally in order. In the first season of joint performances, the couple qualified for the European Championships in Bern and became fourth. .jpg» />
Back then, figure skating could only dream of its current level of hype. Or talk about it “holy, holy,” depending on how you relate to the phenomenon. But the rapid rise of the Herboldt/Enbert couple, even taking into account the realities of that time and despite the fact that at the same time the story of Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov was developing, caused a lot of noise. Handsome Katarina and Alexander appeared in one media outlet, then in another interview, they attracted significant attention.
Not everyone liked this. I remember a conversation with one honored coach of Russia. Out of respect for his experience and achievements, I will not mention his last name.
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“It’s a disgrace,” he said. — Is this how it’s done — the first season and straight to Bern? Let them first travel around Saransk and Yoshkar-Olam, like everyone else, hit some bumps, wait in line. Then they will earn the right to perform on the international stage. And now they’re not even a couple at all — just two skaters.”
In some ways we can agree with him. For example, in the fact that they were not yet a couple. It is always noticeable when skaters have “chemistry” that allows them to be called this sublime word. She does not appear immediately. The grinding process takes some time. Not a month, not two, not a year. The same applies to Kostornaya and Kunitsa.
However, there are exceptions to every rule. Perhaps there are two such unique people who can go out on the ice together, immediately skate in unison and understand each other with half a gesture. Perhaps these were Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov. They didn't become mega-champions overnight. Although I had enough experience and skill in pair skating. But this is definitely not the case of Kostornaya and Kunitsa, just as this did not apply to Herboldt and Enbert. And our figure skating, which lives according to concepts, in any case would not have allowed Alena and Georgiy to spread their wings immediately after they built the “nest”.
The dispersion of marks in the short program protocol, which Kostornaya was indignant at, is also a detail here. For the first time or what? You don’t have to scratch your head for long to remember how, for example, at one of the Russian championships, Mikhail Kolyada received a “+3” from an experienced St. Petersburg referee for falling from a quadruple jump. How in the Russian Cup Final of the 2018/19 season the judges pulled Evgenia Medvedev over Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. How already this season they violated the rules of the International Skating Union by overestimating Adelia Petrosyan at the first stage of the Russian Grand Prix in Ufa.
Holding, pushing and pulling are far from new in our figure skating. Rarely does a season go without this. Let's be honest — not a single one gets by. Why people oppose it very rarely and most often quietly is also clear. Because the system of “distributing elephants” works. Keep your head down, work, try, and a holiday will come to your street. This is what the honored coach spoke about then. Nothing has changed.
Although it could. What is happening with figure skating in Russia now? That's right: it is isolated from the international family. Inside the country, there is almost no main incentive to live by these very concepts: the struggle for trips to the main foreign competitions. It would seem that what is not an ideal moment to destroy a vicious system? Give ratings based on what people perform on the ice, not based on ratings. In our country, it is not determined at all by sporting principles; it often has nothing to do with objectivity, for example, due to the authority of the coaching staff.
There are few positive changes. If they do meet, it’s mostly in junior tournaments. At the second stage of the all-Russian series, Victoria Morozova was deservedly rated higher than Alisa Dvoeglazova and Sofia Titova, students of Eteri Tutberidze and Evgeni Plushenko, respectively. Although there are oddities in refereeing there too. Either the extra jump will not be noticed, or the absence of a mandatory jump. This is only in the current season, which has barely begun, for the same skater.
And everything is the same as before. The stars have an airbag. In the same Omsk, Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov received a “steering wheel” for the parallel jump in the short program, but still took first place in the segment. Mark Kondratyuk, having messed up through the roof on the first day of the tournament, discovered his “nines” in the components. It can be explained this way: we have few Olympic champions left in the ranks. Everyone must be protected. But why, by the same logic, then is it not necessary to protect Kostornaya — one of the brightest and charismatic figure skaters of our time, who is no less attractive bait for spectators than the above-mentioned ones?
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Apparently, it’s all for the same reason: I didn’t get a bump. And besides, she’s too cocky. Our figure skating bosses don't like people like that. And more often than not, what happens to people like Alena in this sport is what happened to the small but proud bird in the wonderful film. They break away from the group and fly straight into the sun, but they burn their wings and fall to the bottom of the deepest gorge.
Why Kostornaya! Plushenko himself tried to break into the coaching community of Russian figure skating with a swift, rebellious whirlwind. I thought that he got into trouble in the ever-memorable “Mishinsky” locker room, receiving blows from the “grandfathers”. Having also encountered injustice, he began to make loud statements. But that was not the case — the two-time Olympic champion was besieged. And now she doesn’t give interviews at all.
Alena still believes in the power of words. Will it help? While figure skating in Russia continues to live according to concepts, it’s unlikely.
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the position of the editors.
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