July 7 Russian champion Sofya Akatieva will be 16 years old. You will have to celebrate in a not very joyful mood: as previously reported, the figure skater's pre-season training was interrupted due to a stress fracture in her foot. At a recent non-sports event, Sofia appeared on crutches and in a cast.
Nothing irreparable, fortunately, did not happen — after the recovery period and rest, Akatieva will return to the ice. A stress fracture is a common injury among figure skaters. It occurs as a reaction to systematic damage to the bone, ligaments and muscles under the influence of repetitive intense loads. Since the purity of the performance of complex jumps is achieved by many repetitions, the best of the best are doomed to stress fractures. The most diligent and responsible are at risk. For example, Evgenia Medvedev and Alexander Trusov went through something similar.
But their intense workloads were explained by the high stakes: they were injured in the most important career of each Olympic season. Akatieva, one might say, suffers for nothing at all. Now she does not even have the opportunity to win the title of European champion: Russian athletes are still persona non grata in international competitions. But she still maintains the highest level, performing several quadruple toe loops and a triple axel in one program. load? Down with quadruple jumps and broken feet, because of which a 16-year-old girl has to walk on crutches, and not dance! As an idea it sounds noble, but, of course, it does not withstand any criticism in real life. Because it contradicts the very meaning of Sonya's life. Her entire existence now is figure skating. All her thoughts and dreams are about him.
Sofya Akatieva is a representative of the generation of conscious champions. Generations of perfectly built girls with intelligent eyes and faces detached from everything earthly. Girls without weaknesses both on the competitive ice and in the press conference hall.
A generation that fails to pass mathematics with an A is as unthinkable as not to own a quadruple sheepskin coat.
Last year, in the offseason, Akatieva also got injured and dropped out of the training process for a couple of weeks. But neither this circumstance, nor the fact of her debut at adult competitions prevented her from winning the main tournament of all possible — the Russian Championship.
There is a feeling that this time everything will be crushed. As in one beautiful song it was sung: «You just need to learn to wait, you need to be calm and stubborn, so that sometimes from life you will receive the joys of mean telegrams.» Sofya Akatieva is perfect in her calmness and stubbornness. No worse than his ultra-hard jumps, perfect spins and step sequences.