Russian figure skaters won the silver medal of the team tournament at the winter Olympic Games- 2018. In an interview with Gazeta.Ru, this achievement was commented on by the head of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, Alexander Gorshkov, and the honorary president of the organization, Valentin Piseev. The latter also responded to the criticism of the American athlete Ashley Wagner against Alina Zagitova.
Russia won silver in team tournament on figure skating at the Olympics, losing the victory to the Canadians. The International Olympic Committee has already congratulated them on this result. How do you assess such an achievement?
President of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR) Alexander Gorshkov:
In the situation in which they put us, the second place is victory. I cannot say whether this is an achievement or not, but, in any case, it is a victory.
Honorary President of the FFKKR Valentin Piseev:
We must congratulate the team on the silver medal. Considering that our team is young and promising, that's not bad. Everyone tried: some succeeded 100%, and some less. I think that if everyone could show themselves to their maximum, then we could take gold. But sport is sport.
So my congratulations. All the guys are great. They have good prospects both at this Olympics and in the future. Our figure skating is now in very good condition.
Women singles were also shown free skating today. Alina Zagitova won by more than 20 points from the second American Mirai Nagasu.
A. G.: - Alina is great, as are our girls in general.
Zhenya Medvedeva perfectly skated the short program, breaking her own world record. And today Alina has already shown her class, for whom - you can imagine! - this is the first season at the adult level. And immediately such an achievement is a plus at the Olympic Games. Here one can only express congratulations. The girls' nerves are not steel, but they are all great.
V.P .: - Both Medvedev and Zagitova are unique girls. There will be a very interesting competition between them in the individual championship. The rivals are also awake. What the American Nagasu showed looked very confident. But I still think that ours will be better - and who of them, Medvedev or Zagitova, will show the competition.
American skater Ashley Wagner expressed the opinion on her Twitter that Zagitova's program looks chaotic, since at first almost nothing happens, and then there are a lot of jumps. "This is not a program, this is not a performance," Wagner wrote. What arguments could be used to answer this criticism?
V.P .: - There are rules that give advantages to skaters performing the most difficult elements, in particular, jumping ones, in the second half of the program.
It’s surprising for Wagner that Medvedev and Zagitova are following these rules. They are so ready that they can do it all in the second half. The American woman is not able to build her program in this way, so it must be strange to her how it can be done that way. But, it turns out, you can, you just need to be Zagitova or Medvedeva.
- What about couples?
A. G.: - Bobrova and Solovyov performed well in dances. And in the free program of sports pairs, Zabiyako and Enbert showed themselves well, who had the fate of performing in team competitions. You know that we did not receive an invitation to the Stolbov Games, and their duet with Klimov could not take part in the Olympics.
But these are very experienced athletes - Olympic champions of the team tournament and silver medalists of individual competitions in Sochi-2014. According to the plan, it was they who were supposed to skate the free program in Pyeongchang, but it turned out like this, and Natasha and Sasha had to replace them.
How can you rate their performance? Why do they often become third in international competitions?
A. G.: - It is difficult to explain why the guys became only the third. The marks are given by the judges. There is both a technical part and an artistic part - the components of the program. By virtue of my position, I cannot give judgments to judging. But, of course, Tessa and Scott are very experienced athletes, Olympic champions in Vancouver 2010 and silver medalists in Sochi 2014. It is very difficult to compete with them.
As for the Americans, our guys fought with them, and if they lost, then quite a bit.
V.P .: - In ice dancing, the Canadians were clearly better than ours and the Americans. Bobrova and Soloviev performed confidently - either in the short program or in the free program (especially in the free program, which makes a very strong impression). Did the Americans beat the Russians in the fight for second place? They have more experience, they are more titled athletes.
The Russian national figure skating team, performing at the Olympics in Pyeongchang as "Olympic athletes from Russia", took the third place in the overall standings of the team tournament of the 2018 Games following the results of the first day of the competition.
On February 9, at the Gangneung Ice Arena, short skates for men and sports couples took place, which brought such different emotions to Russian fans.
The start of the tournament for the national team turned out to be at least terrible: Mikhail Kolyada, who recently scored more than 103 points in the short program, was unable to cope with the enormous pressure, making mistakes almost everywhere.
So, a 22-year-old athlete fell from a quadruple lutz, failed to perform a cascade of a quadruple toe loop - a triple toe loop, and then still did not make a triple axel.
As a result, Mikhail received a terrible 74.36 points for himself, becoming in the end only the eighth out of ten participants, which brought the "Olympic athletes from Russia" only three points in the total "piggy bank".
A start like this prompted some to start sad conversations about absenteeism. reigning champions team tournament (in Sochi, the team with Yulia Lipnitskaya and Evgeny Plushenko won a landslide victory) to the final of the competition - according to the regulations, only five teams will be able to get through there after four short skates (later dance couples and women will also perform).
However, the unpleasant situation was quickly corrected by the duet of Evgeny Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov: the European champions showed excellent performance, becoming the only pair that received more than 80 points from the judges (80.92).
Thus, according to the results of the first competitive day of the team tournament, the Russian team takes the third place in the table, having 13 points in its asset - the same amount for the Japanese, and so far the Canadians are in the lead with 17 points.
The worst in the coveted top 5 so far are the Italians - 10 points.
After defeating the rivals, Morozov expressed the hope that later the Russians would be able to catch up with competitors in the fight for gold.
“This is just the beginning, there will also be short programs and free programs. Hope we catch up ",
- conveys the words of the partner "R-Sport".
It is noteworthy that the domestic couple managed to become the best in the short program, even taking into account a slight injury to Tarasova - the day before she received a bruised hip.
According to the skater herself, the injury did not prevent her from performing in the team tournament.
“Yesterday at training I fell down and hurt my hip. The doctors are working, I feel pain, but it didn’t bother me in the program, ”said Evgenia, adding that she and Vladimir“ saw and heard fans from Russia in the stands and it was very nice ”.
When asked whether Tarasova, who is the team captain, will help Kolyada not fall into a minor mood after a failure in the short run, Morozov said that he "can handle it himself."
As for the couple's plans for the Games ceremony, they, according to Vladimir, are forced to miss it.
“We would like to go, but we have competitions, we have to choose,” he concluded.
It also became known that the pair will definitely not perform in the free program - the Russian team here will have to make one of the two substitutions provided for by the rules.
“Zhenya and Volodya will definitely not perform in the free program of the team tournament. They will have to compete in the individual tournament, it will start right after the team tournament, ”said the coach of the pair Nina Moser.
The athletes will be replaced either by Natalia Zabiyako / Alexander Enbert, or Christina Astakhova / Alexey Rogonov.
In addition, the specialist, commenting on the performance of her charges, assured that they can show even more impressive results.
“Thanks to such skating, the mood after the men's tournament has improved. How they rode! They overtook all their rivals, and even with the best result season. Or maybe better»,
- Moser TASS reports.
We add that the team tournament will end on February 12, when the final skates of the final will take place.
You can find other news and materials on the page in Pyeongchang, as well as in the groups of the sports department on social networks.
On the night of the second day of the team figure skating tournament for the third, Russia's chances to compete for gold increased. The main forces in single skating - Canada, USA and Japan - decided to make replacements. There was no doubt about Alina Zagitova, and Mikhail Kolyada had the opportunity to rehabilitate himself for failure in the short program. In the company with the American Adam Rippon and the Japanese Keiji Tanaka, he looked much more preferable, and the Canadian Patrick Chan, with his not the most difficult program, was not an insurmountable obstacle.
Kolyada only needed to perform in his own strength and cleanly skate the free program. The bronze medalist of the European Championship slightly simplified it, replacing the quadruple salchow with a sheepskin coat and redistributing the jumps in the second program. Kolyada did not refuse the quadruple lutz, but fell on it again, and the subsequent sheepskin coat was three turns. But the Russian skated the rest of the program cleanly and with enthusiasm inherent only to him. The final mark was 173.57 points, which is below the average level of Kolyada. It remained to wait for the rivals Rippon and Chan to perform.
The American, who made his Olympics debut at the age of 28, has not performed a single quadruple jump. Although his production was flawless, the judges made it clear that they would not be encouraged. Rippon was located right behind Kolyada, losing 0.59 points to the Russian.
But Chan was rewarded for his efforts. Although he did not cope with axels and rittberger - therefore the technical score was lower than that of Kolyada - the Canadian received generous components. The total score for the rental for the song Hallelujah was 179.75 points. Chan did not become an Olympic champion in Sochi, but he held out in figure skating for another four years and did it in Pyeongchang. His team was already seven points ahead of the Russian national team, and this gap could no longer be won back.
- Mikhail Kolyada
- globallookpress.com
Women
Alina Zagitova, and then Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Solovyov, had only to skate for their pleasure and show what they are capable of before personal starts. The 15-year-old Russian woman received the last starting number and could first see what her rivals had prepared.
American Mirai Nagasu performed a clean triple axel - only the Japanese women Mitori Ido and Mao Asada were able to do this at the Olympic Games. At the same time, Nagasu became the oldest among them. The winner of the fourth place at the Vancouver Olympics in one jump was able to leave behind the Japanese Kaori Sakamoto, Canadian Gabrielle Daleman and even Italian Carolina Costner. A participant in four Olympic Games was able to perform a triple lutz for the first time in several years, but in the middle of the program she thwarted several jumps and eventually became only fourth.
At the same time, Nagasu's assessment was still not some kind of prohibitive - from 137.53 points she would not have entered the top five of the Grand Prix finals, if we talk only about the free program. In stock, Zagitova had an even more valuable element than the triple axel - a cascade of a triple toe loop - a triple rittberger. The Russian woman in her debut performance at the Olympic Games performed it magnificently, and then she was already walking along the knurled one. The wonderful performance of the program to the music from "Don Quixote" brought the 15-year-old athlete 158.08 points. Only the world record set at last year's World Championships surpasses these numbers.
After the girls' competition, it became finally clear that Canada won gold, and Russia won silver. The teams of the USA and Italy are left to compete for the bronze in dances. Frustrated by such a prospect, American figure skater Ashley Wagner, who failed to qualify for the Games, criticized Zagitova on her Twitter account.
“I respect the competitive approach. But I cannot accept this production. This is not a program. She killed time in the beginning and then just jumped in the second half. This is not a performance. I understand that the judging system allows it, but figure skating is not about that, ”said Wagner.
- Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Soloviev
- globallookpress.com
Dancing
The dance competition turned into an exhibition tournament, and this only embellished the skaters' performances. Except for the Japanese duo, which fell twice during the performance, the rest of the members took turns making a splash.
Italians Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte once again caused regret among the fans that this is their last season. Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Solovyov successfully brought to life their complex artistic images, which earned them 110.43 points.
On the second attempt to bypass Maya and Alex Shibutani from the United States, the Russians failed. The siblings scored 112.01 points due to their technical background. The team tournament of dancers was closed with the performance of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who repeated the record of Yillis Glafström and Evgeny Plushenko, only these skaters were able to win four Olympic medals.
The Russian national team won the second medal in Pyeongchang, and at the same rink where the first bronze was mined. Silver awards were given to Mikhail Kolyada, Evgenia Medvedeva, Alina Zagitova, Evgenia Tarasova, Vladimir Morozov, Natalia Zabiyako, Alexander Enbert, Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Solovyov. Soon all of them will have a chance to replenish their piggy banks - at the Olympics, individual competitions will take place almost every day.
Team figure skating competition - relatively recent kind of sport, including performances in different types of figure skating and evaluating them in total.
It aims to promote the development of all types of figure skating, since the overall result depends on the athletes' assessments at each stage teams.
The history of the emergence and development of team figure skating
Officially The International Union skaters ( ISU) this sport was first included in the program of the world championships in 2009 in April in Tokyo in the arena Yoyogi National Gymnasium.
It was planned that team championship which received the name World Team Trophy, will take place every two years.
The tournament is unusual in that, along with ISU, it is organized by the Japanese Figure Skating Federation with the support of the TV company Asahi that commercializes the sporting event. The next time such a competition was going to be held in 2011 again in Japan, in Yokohama, in April. But in March, the largest natural and man-made disasters occurred in Japan, and the World Cup was postponed to the next year.
By 2018, 5 such championships were held — in 2009/12/13/15/17 and everyone in Tokyo on which the Americans won three times and the Japanese won twice.
In general, it was Japan that played a special role in the formation of team figure skating, since the prototype of modern competitions was the since 1997 entertainment tournament Japan Open. It was not of an official nature, and teams of popular athletes were formed not by country, but, for example, by parts of the world.
Since the 2014 Olympic Games (OG) in Sochi, this species became Olympic. Then the Russian team managed to win gold medal... The first Olympic champions in this sport were Evgeni Plushenko, Yulia Lipnitskaya, Tatyana Volosozhar - Maxim Trankov, Ksenia Stolbova - Fedor Klimov, Ekaterina Bobrova - Dmitry Solovyov and Elena Ilinykh - Nikita Katsalapov. On the last in 2018 At the Olympics in Korea, our team won silver in this event, this time the gold was won by the Canadians.
Photo 1. Performance Russian figure skaters Tatyana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankova as part of the team figure skating competition at the 2014 Olympics.
Team skating rules
The rules of this sport are slightly different. depending on the type of competition - World Cup or Olympic Games.
Types of what it is
In both types of competitions there are male and female single skating, sports skating and ice dancing, that is all four classic types. The difference is that at the World Team Trophy each team has 2 singles and 2 singles, 1 sports pair and a dance duet.
There is a certain bias towards single skating, the reason for which is the significant participation of the Japanese in organizing the event.
Traditionally, Japan is strong in singles, but lags behind in sports skating and dancing, so it gives preference to representatives of single types of figure skating.
At the Olympics, all four types are represented evenly: one representative single male and female skating, sports pair, dance duet.
In this way, Olympic competition in this sport are more balanced.
How many stages
The number of stages in both variants of the competition is the same - by two... Participants perform in short and free program... But if the same athletes take part in both programs at the championship, then substitutions are possible at the Olympic Games, and not all teams are allowed to the second stage.
How is the selection of participants
At the championship World Team Trophy each program presents 6 teams, a at OI first in the short program they compete 10 teams, and than 5 best according to its results, they perform in a free program and compete for medals.
The strongest skaters of their country, who have the highest ISU rating for couples and dance duets, are selected for the World Team Championship, as well as two of the best singles skaters among men and among women. In addition, these athletes must include in the top ten in its form following the results of the previous World Figure Skating Championships.
Attention! When unreasonable refusal from participation in these competitions of the selected singles, singles, couples or dance duo, they lose the right to speak in shows, exhibitions and competitions during a year, other measures are also applied to them.
In the event that the selected country refuses to participate with the whole team, the team of the next most ranked country is invited to take its place.
For the Olympic Games, the selection of participants is based on the results of the previous World Cup and the recently passed stages of the Grand Prix series. To determine the country's rating, the results of the performances of the best representatives are taken in four types of figure skating at these competitions.
Photo 2. Russian national team figure skating team at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Sometimes rating points are still not enough. In this case, the results of other well-known competitions are also taken into account, for example, European championship, Tournament of the four continents, junior championship. Of course, only those athletes who, according to their results, get to the individual championship of the Olympics, can compete at the Olympic Games.
There may be cases when in the team one kind is not represented due to the fact that the athlete could not qualify for the Olympic Games. Then the team has the right to use the additional quota and take part in the competition. At the same time, the country does not nominate a representative in this form and cannot compensate in any other way for the lack of a participant, as well as, accordingly, points. It should be borne in mind that the national team applying for participation in the team competition, must obtain a license for at least three types of skiing.
You may also be interested in:
How points are awarded
In team competitions, when summing up the results, not the points themselves scored by the skaters based on the results of the performance are taken into account, but the points awarded to them for this.
In the World Figure Skating Championships, points are awarded for both short and free skating according to the following principle: in singles for the first place - 12 points, for the second - 11 and so on up to twelfth place with 1 point.
In the competition of couples and dancers for the first place - 12 points, for the second - 11 points and so on up to the sixth place with 7 points... The points of all team members are added up for both programs. According to their overall result, the places of the participating countries are determined.
At the Olympic Games in the short program, points are awarded according to the same principle: for the first place - 10 points, for the second - 9 and so on, for the tenth - 1 point. For the representatives of the top five following the results of the short program of teams, an arbitrary composition is assessed as follows: first place - 10 points, second - 9 and so on, for fifth - 6 points... Points total for two programs all representatives of the team and determines its position.
How are the replacements going
At the Olympic Games one participating country is entitled to perform between the short and free skating no more than two substitutions subject to the availability of athletes who have received Olympic licenses in the form of figure skating in which this replacement occurs.
This rotation allows for more participants., to give the opportunity to reduce the load on the leaders, to demonstrate the maximum result, because often, for various reasons, the short and free programs can be better or worse for athletes.
