The draw for the Channel One Figure Skating Cup took place on Friday in St. Petersburg. The ceremony was, on the one hand, entertaining in nature, but on the other, it demonstrated that not all participants were going to perceive the upcoming tournament as a show.
Channel One chose Sevkabel Port as the site of the draw for the team tournament named after it — part of one of the oldest factories in St. Petersburg, turned into, as it is commonly called, a social and cultural space. In one of the studios with dim lights, a DJ was already working an hour before the start of the event; tables with food and drinks were set up — exclusively non-alcoholic. And in the next room, the captains of three teams — Alina Zagitova, Anna Shcherbakova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva — were bending over the lists of participants. We thought about strategy and tactics. The organizers announced the role of these skaters in advance, and at the ceremony they had to “draft” tournament participants.
As always happens, the skaters chose the draw ceremony as a runway to show off their fashionable outfits. But, unfortunately — both for photographers and, I think, for the athletes themselves — the directors of the event reduced the opportunity for display to a minimum. There was no semblance of a “red carpet” due to limited space, the hall was dark, and on stage the skaters were immediately dressed in sweaters in the colors of the teams they were assigned to thanks to the choice of the captains. But the captains themselves still managed to show off a little — for about 15 minutes while their presentation and flash interviews were going on.
First we played out the colors. If previously only two teams participated in the Channel One Cup, and everything was simple — “red” (who won all three times in previous years) and either “blue” or “white”, now they decided to use all three colors. Everyone expected that the red one would go to Zagitova again, like twice before. As a last resort, Shcherbakova once won with this color. But in the end, the sweaters of Tuktamysheva’s team turned out to be painted red. This time Alina will lead the Whites, and Shcherbakova will lead the Blues.
It’s a pity that the organizers chose not to come up with names for the teams this time, as they did before. Then “Red Machine” and “Time of the First” fought for the title. Now we could also get creative. Zagitova's team could definitely be called Sex and the City — the Pyeongchang Olympic champion chose an outfit that was extremely suitable for this. The teams of Shcherbakova and Tuktamysheva could also be well suited for certain names; the scope for imagination is quite wide.
The process of selecting skaters at the draft as captains proceeded for the time being without complications — until Tuktamysheva suddenly had the idea that the organizers had violated the selection procedure. The host of the ceremony, Maxim Trankov, tried to turn everything into a joke — but that was not the case! Elizaveta was determined to win from the very beginning — and to Zagitova’s remark “the main thing is to get high,” she instantly replied: “This is bad tactics! I am firmly determined to win.” In the end, they found out that the rules were not violated — but it took about five minutes, during which the audience was probably scratching their turnips, as they say, asking what was actually going on.
One way or another, each team ended up with a “slaughterer” — since the captains had the opportunity to choose first in one of the disciplines. For example, Shcherbakova, who chose the first sports couples, immediately invited Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, Zagitova immediately chose Margarita Bazylyuk, and Tuktamysheva — Arseny Fedotov. Of the curious combinations: together with Fedotov, his principal rival Lev Lazarev found himself on the same team. Also next to Fedotov will be Alisa Dvoeglazova — they have been talking about their friendship for months now, and the guys themselves do not deny these conversations.
To summarize, Zagitova’s team included Ekaterina Chikmareva/Matvey Yanchenkov, Natalya Khabibullina/Ilya Knyazhuk (all pair skating), Margarita Bazylyuk, Ksenia Sinitsyna, Alina Gorbacheva, Ksenia Gushchina, Evgeniy Semenenko, Mark Kondratyuk, Roman Savosin, Ivan Ramzenkov (all single skating, Irina Khavronina/David Narizhny, Sofia Leontyeva/Daniil Gorelkin (ice dancing).
Tuktamysheva’s team included Alexandra Boykova/Dmitry Kozlovsky, Yulia Artemyeva/Alexey Bryukhanov (all pair skating), Sofia Muravyova, Alisa Dvoeglazova, Lidiya Pleskacheva, Maria Agayeva, Arseny Fedotov, Lev Lazarev, Matvey Vetlugin, Alexander Samarin (all single skating ), Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva/Egor Bazin, Ekaterina Mironova/Evgeniy Ustenko (all — ice dancing).
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Team Shcherbakova: Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Gallyamov, Elizaveta Osokina/Artem Gritsaenko (all pair skating), Adelia Petrosyan, Daria Sadkova, Anna Frolova, Veronika Yametova, Vladislav Dikidzhi, Pyotr Gumennik, Dmitry Aliev, Daniil Samsonov ( all — single skating), Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin, Sofia Shevchenko/Andrey Yezhlov (all — ice dancing).
It is impossible to make predictions about how the tournament will turn out. The fact is that, in addition to figure skating itself, this year the Channel One Cup includes elements that are akin to the hockey and basketball All-Star Games. There will be various competitions and “challenges” that will count towards the competition. So all that remains is to wait for the start of an exciting event — for which, by the way, the teams will be well paid. The total prize fund of the tournament is 20 million rubles. The game, as they say, is worth the candle.