The Russian Junior Championship was won by 15-year-old Arseny Fedotov . Sports talks about the growing talent from the group of the honored coach of Russia Eteri Tutberidze.
It rarely happens that a junior skater comes out and you have absolutely no doubt about him. This happens regularly with single girls. Sofya Akatieva, Kamila Valieva, Anna Shcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova, now also Margarita Bazylyuk — each new star rushed through the children like a comet, crushing the dreams and hopes of their rivals with inexorable confidence in their abilities. Then the star grew up — new ones came… The circle is still not broken.
With the guys, everything is different, they play for the long haul. The process of maturation, formation and acquisition of jumping power occurs gradually, and only at a more or less conscious age even very great talents reach their designed capacity. This happened even with the great Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen, and before them with Evgeni Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin.
And here is Arseny Fedotov. Only 15 years old, but the power seems to be 20-25. A little boy who is threatening to become a big showman is already here, literally before our eyes. He jumps the most difficult quadruples (he has already tried a lutz with a flip) and does not quit the program after them. He is not afraid to say too much and clearly does not want to be remembered by those around him as yet another nice fellow, repeating, like a mantra, something he has learned by heart about “work work.” He doesn’t even hesitate to show the world his chosen one — another young star of Eteri Tutberidze’s group, Alisa Dvoeglazova, although in figure skating relationships are usually kept secret. He likes to surprise, and he is not shy about it.
And he also wins, although This, of course, is no longer a sensation at all. In Saransk, at the Russian Championship, he “brought” almost 10 points to his closest pursuer and perhaps his main rival in the future, Lev Lazarev. Although Lev, for a second, skated a clean free program with three quadruples, including a lutz.
It is probably wrong to say that Arseny is invincible. Still, Lazarev periodically beats him, and if there is an opportunity, then quite confidently. And yet, in key moments, Fedotov is almost always unstoppable. Perhaps precisely thanks to the thirst to delight and the ability to get high from the spotlight.
Now he has two gold medals in a row at the Russian junior championships, and we can say with all confidence that he is the leader of our younger generation. As well as the fact that the thesis of some “experts” about Tutberidze’s inability to work with singles athletes crumbled into dust. Apparently, Eteri Georgievna and her team were able to not only prepare the guy for big victories, but also allowed him to be himself — a little daring, provocative and attracting interest. For Arseny, this is probably no less important than good physical shape.
When There is also an unpleasant parallel to this, which is quite difficult to get rid of. The last two-time national junior champion was Daniil Samsonov, a talented, jumping and extremely promising young man whose career was ruined by a series of serious injuries. As a result, only at the age of 18 Daniil managed to return to a high level, but precious time, unfortunately, was lost irrevocably.
I would like to wish Arseny not to miss anything. And then, when the iron curtain of the ban on Russian sports falls, the whole world will know that we are strong not only in women's singles.