Test skates – 2022 in figure skating: Trusova, Valieva vs. Akatieva, Kolyada – Kondratyuk, debuts in dance

The season in figure skating is about to begin. At the control skates in Moscow, which will be held from September 24 to 25, members of the Russian team will present their new competitive programs and demonstrate their readiness for the upcoming starts.

We are waiting for the triumphant return of Kamila Valieva and Alexandra Trusova, who have endured a difficult Olympics, the struggle for leadership among men and a series of powerful debuts in pairs and ice dancing.

We talk about the main intrigues of test skates.

Will Trusova return fresh and renewed and surprise everyone?

Traditionally, the post-Olympic season is not easy for the main stars of the Russian national team. In Megasport this weekend we will not see Anna Shcherbakova, who underwent knee surgery and is now recovering. The fans will not be able to enjoy the skating of Alena Kostornaya, who also faced surgery.

Of the famous trio of Trusov-Shcherbakov-Kostornaya, only the Russian Rocket will enter the ice in Moscow. For Sasha, this is a good opportunity to show how she coped with the psychological pressure after Beijing, where she took silver and reacted sharply to it. In the off-season, the skater led an active lifestyle, experimenting a lot and trying herself in other sports. What the student Eteri Tutberidze prepared for the audience at the test skates is a big surprise.

It will be very interesting to look at her programs, because in the short Sasha will perform to the blues hit “I Put a Spell on You” with female vocals, and in the free program – to the soundtrack from the film “Nerves at the Limit”, performed on the violin. As for the technical part, it’s hardly worth waiting for five quads or a “missed” quad-rittberger from Trusova at the start of the season – the skater is just entering the competitive season. But she may surprise – last year she managed to do this by performing the coveted “five-quad” at the test skates.

Pressure on Valieva intensifies – will she cope?

Trusova’s main rival will be Kamila Valieva, for whom her performance at the Olympics ended in tragedy. Fourth place in a personal tournament and doping allegations – all this almost broke her, and the worst thing is that the pressure on the skater does not stop. The investigation into her case is still ongoing, and a few days before the rentals, a psychological attack began on her. In America, they started talking about a positive B test, raising another wave of regrets about dirty athletes.

Now Camila needs to ignore the attacks and just do her job. The ward of Eteri Tutberidze can shine in the short program, because in her arsenal now, in addition to the most difficult triple axel, there is an ultra-si cascade – lutz-rittberger. The set of arbitrary is unknown, but in any case it will be a work of art. Valieva will skate to Hans Zimmer’s compositions “Cornfield Chase” and “Tick-Tock”. Inside the production, Daniil Gleikhengauz encrypted a message for the figure skater’s fans, so it will be enchanting!

A new generation of figure skaters enter the big game

Of the centenarians of figure skating, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva will appear in Moscow, already accustomed to performing surrounded by young girls. The big game will include former juniors who will try to draw attention to themselves. Sofya Akatieva and Adelia Petrosyan may well become the discovery of test skates. Both athletes master the most difficult jumps, while at their age this is far from the limit.

Sofya Samodelkina is also capable of shining, having decided on drastic changes: the figure skater left the group of Sergei Davydov and went to the mentor of the Olympic champion in the team of Mark Kondratyuk, Svetlana Sokolovskaya. Whether this cooperation will benefit her, we will soon find out.

It is curious what form Sofia Muravyova is in. Evgeni Plushenko’s student has healed her injury, and now she will return to the ice.

Struggle for leadership: Kondratyuk vs. Kolyada

A very dense composition is expected in men. Figure skaters from St. Petersburg will demonstrate their programs for the second time, so many of them will have a chance to correct the mistakes made at previous test skates in their native city. This will be done by Dmitry Aliev, Pyotr Gumennik, Makar Ignatov, Andrey Mozalev, and Mikhail Kolyada. His colleague in Alexei Mishin’s group, Evgeny Semenenko, will perform for the first time – the skater managed to recover from an unpleasant injury and will now break into the fight for leadership in the Russian team, which this year will be no less exciting.

Of course, Mark Kondratyuk, who, even before his trip to China, has established himself as a strong “technician” with high artistry, claims the title of the country’s main singles skater. Since then, Svetlana Sokolovskaya’s protégé has made a lot of progress: he collected the entire collection of quads, learned the most difficult combinations of 4-4 and got used to sequences with two ultra-cs, probably taking into account the recent changes in the ISU rules.

Of the other participants, Alexander Samarin, Artur Danielyan and Alexei Erokhov can be distinguished. The latter may well become the “dark horse” of the Moscow rentals.

In pairs and ice dancing – continuous debuts

In ice dancing, our team suffered heavy losses in the form of Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov, Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin and Diana Davis / Gleb Smolkin, who will miss the start due to being in the USA. Nevertheless, Megasport will have someone to look at: fans of figure skating are waiting for a lot of debuts. Vasilisa Kaganovskaya / Valery Angelopol and Irina Khavronina / Dario Chirizano left the juniors. Three newly formed duets will also perform: Annabel Morozov/David Narizhny, Sofia Tyutyunina/Andrey Bagin, Elizaveta Shanaeva/Pavel Drozd.

The pairs will also have their newcomers – Yulia Artemyeva and Alexey Bryukhanov. However, the main focus will be on the confrontation between Anastasia Mishina / Alexander Gallyamov and Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov, who became the best representatives of Russia at the Games. The third pair of the country – Alexandra Boikova / Dmitry Kozlovsky – will not be due to a partner’s injury, but this will not make the test skates less interesting. It will be incredibly hot!