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Exactly two years ago, Anna Shcherbakova became the Olympic champion in figure skating, and Alexandra Trusova won silver. Sports recalls the drama that occurred in the Chinese capital.
Perhaps, for the sake of this moment they went to figure skating. The Olympics are the goal of life for hundreds of athletes, among whom on that day in Beijing we were most interested in the brilliant Russian women. Anna Shcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova, Kamila Valieva — each has her own path and personal motives. Someone was a favorite child from birth, it is unclear why he decided that this hard labor sport was dearer to him than anything in the world. Someone from a young age was aware of strength and did not hesitate to show others that she could do anything, even if it was contrary to the laws of nature. Finally, for some, the path to this Olympics was destined from childhood, and gold, it seemed, was already hanging around her neck long before she boarded the plane to the capital of China.
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Before the free program of the personal tournament, everything stopped making sense. The cruel fact of sport is that there are no and cannot be friends among sworn competitors. Probably the only exception in modern history can be considered the leaders of our artistic gymnastics team, Nikita Nagorny and Arthur Dalaloyan. At one time they fought for the title of the world's main all-around athlete. The author Sport personally saw how this happened. Nikita comes out — Arthur looks behind the scenes and worries as if for himself. Arthur has gone — Nikita looks on almost with trembling hands. They were happy for each other, although, it would seem, they should not be able to stand it.
Dalaloyan later said that the secret of a powerful team atmosphere lies in the training system itself. Artistic gymnastics lives by its own laws, which are based on respect for your neighbor, be it a member of your team or a sworn competitor. They are taught to be united, and coaches ask them to undergo regular testing to see how much of a team player they are. This created a culture of camaraderie. Her engraftment took a long time, but the result exceeded all expectations.
In figure skating, camaraderie is often very conditional. Therefore, as soon as the Olympic spirit overwhelmed our figure skaters, hardly anyone had any thoughts of empathy. In previous years, Trusova and Shcherbakova got along well, but it’s hard to even imagine what was in their heads when they realized that there was only one Olympic gold and they had to play it among themselves.
Kamila Valieva, a world star and a real phenomenon in figure skating, fell, fell and fell again in one of the main skates of her career. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before or since. After the final pose, she gave up and left for Kiss&Cry. I don’t even want to imagine what was going on inside her at that moment.
What was going through Anna and Alexandra’s heads? Sasha gave a great performance in the free program with five quadruples and did the impossible — she shocked the empty arena. It sounds paradoxical, but that’s exactly what happened. Both the few spectators (the Olympics were held in practically empty stands due to Covid restrictions) and Russian journalists were delighted, but the judges decided that all this was only worthy of second place.
Is it deserved? The question is debatable. Alexandra herself believes that yes, and this is confirmed by her emotional reaction, which was broadcast live. However, we must not forget that in the short program the skater fell from a triple Axel, and even the coaches and teammates did not fully understand why she decided to take such a big risk.
Well and, of course, we cannot forget the performance of Anna Shcherbakova, and in the literal sense. During the Olympic season, more and more new obstacles arose in front of her — either a broken toe, a neck injury, or not getting into the Olympic team tournament (she shared a pain with Alexandra). Before the start of the personal tournament, her skates also broke.
But was it noticeable from her that something was going wrong? Pure free with two quadruple jumps, pure short. Even the choreographer of Tutberidze’s team, Daniil Gleikhengauz, immediately after the “arbitrariness” said on camera: “This is gold.”
Again, is it justified? A question that no fan in the world can give you an objective answer to. But what is really a fact is that this great moment for our sport did happen. And no arbitration court will take it away from us.
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the position of the editors