World record women's figure skating free program. Figure skater Medvedeva set a world record in the short program. A technical break is announced

MILAN, March 21 - RIA Novosti, Elena Vaitsekhovskaya. In the short program of the single skaters, which opened the figure skating program in Milan, a sensation occurred: five-time champion European Italian, who turned 31 in February, scored the best total points, winning a small gold medal and ahead of the Russian Olympic champion Pyeongchang. The Russians occupy fifth and 16th places, respectively.

Waiting for an all-time record

The expression “her finest hour has come” is about Zagitova. It was here, in Milan, and not at all in the Olympic Pyeongchang, that the 15-year-old debutant of the senior season received full attention, the lion's share of which at the Games, despite the victory, went not to her, but to Evgenia Medvedeva, and responsibility for the country, and expectations, of the entire figure skating world: will he win or not? Because if she wins a gold medal in Milan, this, as has already been stated several times, will go down in history figure skating a completely unique achievement: victory in all individual starts of the season - both the main ones (which has never been achieved in single skating by any of the skaters) and the secondary ones.

Zagitova had nine of these starts this season and only in one, the team Olympic tournament, did not have the number 1 next to the figure skater’s name - the Russian team finished second in that tournament. But if you remember how brilliantly Alina dealt with her rivals in that tournament, beating the closest of them in the free program by more than twenty points, then this performance can safely be considered a winning asset for the Russian.

The Olympic champion approached the World Championships in Milan as the holder of the world record in the short program (82.92) and the second (after Medvedeva) result in free skating (158.08) and the overall standings (239.57). It’s interesting that Zhenya scored her record points at the very end of last season, competing at a team tournament in Japan, where, by and large, there was no competition or responsibility, but there was very loyal (as usual at such tournaments) judging. While Alina chewed out her records in the most difficult conditions that could be imagined - at the Olympic Games.

Fragility margin

Having a reputation as an athlete who can't win unless she makes a mistake is really cool. Especially considering that Alina earned this reputation in the fight against her opponent, about whom exactly the same words were said a season earlier. Medvedeva was the first to walk this path, sweeping away all records along the way. “She has an incredible reserve of strength,” said one of the two-time world champions. Russian coaches. - I saw her training: no other athlete in the world can jump as much as Zhenya jumps. Therefore, it is not at all a problem for her to skate a program that has a total of only 11 jumps. Pick her up at night and she'll jump it all without any effort."

Jumping was the very weapon with which Zhenya fought the world. Cascade of three triples? Easily! An extra cascade in the program, knowing that it will not be counted? No problem either - she could afford it. It should not have been surprising that Zagitova, who grew up in the hands of the same coaching team, simply repeated the path already established by her predecessor, and with a higher technical quality. A video of an Olympic training session with a cascade of five triple loops during the Pyeongchang Games was scattered around the world, and it was already clear that in women's single skating the time of a new queen was just as quickly coming.

18-year-old Medvedeva could no longer oppose anything to this. It wasn’t even a matter of a sore leg that couldn’t withstand the exorbitant load of jumping, but the fact that Zhenya had grown up. She failed to implement her attempts to transfer all the jumps to the second half of the program in order to be able to fully compete with Alina. For this, firstly, the condition of a younger and more “agile” body was needed, and, secondly, any program could hardly allow the elements to be positioned as advantageously as Zagitova’s. Probably, somewhere in the heavenly expanses of the universe, the stars just came together in this way, uniting in one space with the Olympic Games an excellent choreographic idea, a unique and already repeated coaching technology for achieving results, and a 15-year-old girl born on time, ready to implement all this.

As for Medvedeva, she was simply unlucky. The margin of safety that had been built to ensure that a remarkable career would be crowned with Olympic gold ran out at the worst possible moment.

Full house for Carolina

An hour before the start of the girls' performances on Wednesday, the Mediolanum Forum was surrounded by a dense ring of people, completely unusual for the start of the competition. Italians, yearning for live figure skating ( last championship was held in this country in 2010), they went “to Costner”. The Italian, whose track record includes one world crown in addition to five victories at continental championships, participated in her first adult world championship in 2003, when Alina Zagitova was less than a year old. The current world championship is already the 14th for Kostner and yet she is one of the extremely small number of figure skaters capable of reaching the podium.

Costner's presence among the favorites women's tournament was a reason for who knows how many times to think about what awaits women's singles skating in the future. The topic was actively discussed at the Games in Pyeongchang, and the trigger that launched the discussion among the masses was Zagitova’s victory over Medvedeva. Just if Russian media They mainly discussed the topic of two gold medals, which, in their opinion, both Russian athletes deserved equally, the “Western” approach to the matter looked more rational. It was beautifully expressed on his Facebook account by two-time Olympic champion Dick Button. He firmly suppressed any speculation about Zagitova’s victory, writing: “She won absolutely honestly. Did she do all the jumps in the second half of the program? Yes. But the rules allow it!”

The great champions of the past - Sarajevo Olympic champion Scott Hamilton and four-time world champion Kurt Browning - reacted exactly the same to the victory of the 15-year-old Russian. At the same time, the Canadian said that he was damned upset by the fact that the life in sports of such outstanding athletes as Medvedeva and Zagitova could be limited to four or five years. And this is exactly what everything will come to if International Union speed skaters will not change the existing rules.

Training attack

One significant event happened between the Games and the World Championships in Milan: speaking at the junior world championships in Sofia, 13-year-old Alexandra Trusova performed a free program with two quadruple jumps, gaining the third (after Medvedeva and Zagitova) amount for rental - 153.49. And it became obvious that Browning, turning away sports life current champions for four or five years, got too excited. A much more likely scenario is that the period during which an athlete can maintain the ability to win victories will be limited to two to three years. Just as it already happened - with Medvedeva.

Commenting on Zagitova’s victory in the Olympic final, Tatyana Tarasova even said that it would be very correct, in her opinion, to release Alina from participation in the World Championships, thereby giving her the opportunity to have more rest and emotional recovery, and to send Medvedeva to Milan - so that so that the athlete has the opportunity to end the season with a victory. But events developed differently: two-time champion Around the world, her foot injury worsened, and it became clear that she would no longer be able to continue skating. Now we can talk as much as we like about the fact that Zhenya will return to the ice, having healed his injury, and everything will fall into place, but we must admit that if the return takes place, it will definitely not be simple - the consequences are too unpleasant and, most importantly, long-lasting in sports, stress fractures.

Zagitova began attacking her rivals the day before the start of the competition. She arrived in Milan on Monday evening, and on Tuesday morning she took to the ice at the Mediolanum Forum for the first time. At the first training session, the athlete performed a total of 58 jumps - twice as many as the vast majority of her competitors. On the second ( early morning on the day of the performance), where the skaters skated short programs, - 30. “Incredible lightness, self-confidence and an unprecedented margin of safety,” my French colleague commented on the Olympic champion’s skate.

Breakthrough to the top six

In the draw, Zagitova drew the 34th starting number - right after Kostner and ahead of Sotskova, Caitlin Osmond and Satoko Miyahara. Also in the strongest six was Wakaba Higuchi, a Japanese woman who did not make it into Olympic team her country, but with higher personal records than Kostner, Sotskova, and at the same time all the athletes who competed in the first six groups. It was these six that were supposed to share the first six places among themselves, unless force majeure occurred in the form of falls. The intrigue was not at all whether Zagitova would win this first round. It's whether she will lose.

Could Zagitova have given up this fight? Quite, although before the start of the competition her advantage over everyone else was not in the slightest doubt. For this, any, even a very minor mistake on her part would be enough. The short program is dangerous because it only has three jumping elements: if you fail one, you’re out.

This is exactly how the debutant of the Russian national team, Stanislava Konstantinov, failed with a cascade of lutz and sheepskin coat: the first jump was performed well, but the second was not fast enough. The skater said after the skate that she was still very pleased with the performance, since her task did not yet include fighting for medals, but it was a shame: having a personal best of 67.47, Stanislava skated only 59.19 - the athlete was under-rotated on all jumps.

The Olympic champion in team championship Canadian Gabrielle Daleman and American Mirai Nagasu, who have a triple Axel in their arsenal, but in the short program the skater refused this jump. And she immediately became “like everyone else”, completing the program with a very average result - 65.21. The Canadian, on the contrary, did her best, missing her personal best by just over a point. With a score of 71.61, she became the best of all those who performed in the first six groups.

Queen's first appearance

The queen for the Italian public that day was, of course, Costner. Her very presence in the group of the strongest seemed like a kind of anachronism. However, it is about this athlete, who is experiencing a rebirth this season, that one of the best Russian figure skaters, Anna Pogorilaya, said: “Every time I see Karolna on the ice, I think that women’s single skating has a future.”

Immediately after Wakaba flew out of the top six, “killing” a cascade of triple lutz and sheepskin coat with her fall, Kostner took to the ice and made the audience forget about everything, giving the performance of her life. Such epithets seem not entirely appropriate when applied to short programs, but suffice it to say that the hall, packed with fans, stood up even before the end of the music - including the entire podium, which saw a lot of the press in figure skating. Carolina really had never skated like this in her life - she exceeded her personal best by 1.97, reaching the 80-point mark for the first time - 80.27.

Talking the day before with the Italian coach Alexei Mishin, I heard from him a whole story about how he was pulled to Italy straight from a coaching seminar in Macedonia - Kostner was so impressed by the results of the joint work that the figure skater managed to do, returning to the coach immediately after the Games Pyeongchang. Before the start of the championship, the Russian specialist worked with the Italian for another five days, then came to the competition with her. On the eve of the start, he said, as he usually said in the old days of his work with Evgeni Plushenko: “Don’t write anything about us yet, okay?” And he retired to the locker room with a promising squint: “Something will happen...”

Compared to Costner's performance, Zagitova's skating looked like just an ordinary training skate. This was enough to maintain an excellent position for the throw for the main medal (79.51), but in the mixed zone the Olympic champion burst into tears: who could have thought that - with an error-free skate - she would be rolled over by a rival twice as old?

Sotskova completed the “minimum program”, remaining in the strongest warm-up for the final (71.80). However, with clean skating, she still lost to the bronze medalist of last year's world championship, Caitlin Osmond. The Canadian made two rough mistakes on landings from a triple Lutz and a double Axel, but the total was higher than the Russian's - 72.73. True, Osmond had to move up from third position - Japanese Satoko Miyahara took her (and at the same time the small bronze medal) (74.36).

Well, now we have a situation in which in the final there will be two leaders and at least four athletes vying for bronze. The situation itself is not new - we have already seen similar things in January championship Europe in Moscow, and at the Olympic Games, where Zagitova, Medvedeva - and everyone else were there. But who would have thought that Medvedeva’s place in Milan would be taken by Costner?

They were opposed by Japanese Saoto Miyahara and Canadian Caitlin Osmond. Such a wide representation allowed domestic figure skating fans to dream of a purely Russian prize podium. However, in the short program, certain shortcomings appeared in all of us, except for the current world champion Medvedeva. She performed her performance in a truly exemplary manner, deservedly taking the intermediate lead.

As the famous coach who commented on the competition on Russian TV put it, it is now simply impossible to jump on ice better than Medvedeva does.

Another Russian pair / took fourth place (188.32). Our compatriots replaced Alena Savchenko / Bruno Massot representing Germany in Marseille, who were forced to withdraw due to an injury to their partner.

“We are very pleased that we did a quadruple twist,” admitted Morozov. “With every start he gets better and better. There was a mistake I made on the jump. I think this has nothing to do with our ultra-si, it’s just that my nerves took their toll. But we are glad that we were able to show the program with dignity.

Now we have enough strength to roll it out to the end, in its entirety. We don't lose any momentum or emotions. In the first half of the season it was really difficult to do this. But now we are approaching almost ideal conditions.

We do a lot of work during training, and it gives results. We’re really glad that today we showed not only good skating, but also well-executed elements.”

At the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the second official day ended, and at the same time six more sets of medals found their owners. At the end of the competition, not a single award was placed on the necks of our athletes, but they still managed to go down in history. Sakh.com continues to monitor the main winter news sporting event four years in their diaries.

Event of the day

Russian figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva performed a phenomenal short program at the Olympics, scoring 81.06 points - a new world record. The athlete competed for the national team in team competitions and got us 10 points, ahead of the Italian and Canadian. What adds to the pride in the girl’s performance is that the day before the games she managed to catch a bad cold, but still performed well.

The second official day of the games was marked by another record - the Dutchman Sven Kramer ran at a distance of five thousand meters in 6:09.76, and no one had ever run faster than this time at the Games. For the athlete, this victory was the third in the Olympic five-kilometer race, which is another unattainable achievement that he set in South Korea.

How are ours doing?

Yesterday our team did not win any medals, although there were hopes for them. Failed the third attempt luge Roman Repilov fell back to eighth place at the end of the competition. Even the most experienced fighter can fail at the Olympics, as demonstrated on the same ice chute by German Felix Loch, who was on his way to his fourth gold at the Games in his career, but failed in the last race.

Unexpectedly, Denis Spitsov, who was in the lead in the second part of the distance, was almost among the top three winners in the men's skiathlon (15 km classic + 15 km skate), but in the end lost to the three Norwegians - the Russian was only three seconds short of a medal. Shooting skiers cannot boast of such results; to find their results you need to go far beyond the top 20.

At the end of the day, we still had hopes of a medal in the women's moguls, where three Russians made it to the finals. Marika Pertakhiya took 16th place and dropped out immediately after the first race, and Regina Rakhimova and Ekaterina Stolyarova were able to break into the second stage, but it turned out to be problematic for them to get beyond 10th and 11th places. We can be happy for our neighbors from Kazakhstan, for whom Yulia Galysheva brought bronze.

The Russian women's hockey team was also not happy yesterday. Our girls lost without a chance to the representatives of the Country of the Maple Leaf. The Canadians scored five unanswered goals and confirmed their status as favorites.

History of the day

The Olympics is the best place for dramatic stories that can later be turned into big-budget films. In March 2017, Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris fell so badly at one of the tournaments that doctors had to pull him out of the dead: his jaw was broken, left hand, several ribs and a pelvis. In addition, the young athlete damaged his left lung and ruptured his spleen.

Mark McMorris returned to snowboarding last November at the World Cup in Beijing and immediately won the big air. Yesterday he was able to reach a medal at the Olympics, just as he won bronze four years ago in Sochi. It’s interesting that he broke a rib a couple of weeks before the competition, but that didn’t stop him from jumping onto the podium. The Canadian has a serious will for life and rewards.

Medal count

Snowboard (Men). Slopestyle:

Redmond Gerard (USA);
Maxence Parrot (Canada);
Mark McMorris (Canada).

Cross-country skiing (Men). Skiathlon:

Simen Hegstad Kruger (Norway);
Martin Jonsrud Sundby (Norway);
Hans Christer Holund (Norway).

Speed skating (Men). 5000 meters:

Sven Kramer (Holland);
Ted-Jan Bloemen (Canada);
Sverre Lunde Pedersen (Norway).

Luge (Men). Singles:

David Gleirscher (Austria);
Chris Mazdzer (USA);
Johannes Ludwig (Germany).

Biathlon (Men). Sprint:

Arnd Peiffer (Germany);
Michal Krcmar (Czech Republic);
Dominik Windisch (Italy).

Freestyle (Women). Mogul:

Perrin Laffont (France);
Justine Dufour-Lapointe (Canada);
Yulia Galysheva (Kazakhstan).

What to watch today?

Today in Pyeongchang eight sets of medals will be competed, and the attention of Russians will be drawn to the final skates in the team figure skating tournament. Now our team is six points behind the Canadians, so Mikhail Kolyada, Alina Zagitova and the Bobrova/Soloviev pair will have to work hard to get to the gold and at the same time not let the Americans get to the silver.

We also have a chance for a medal in men's moguls, where Sochi bronze medalist Alexander Smyshlyaev came to his senses by the beginning of the 2018 Olympics. He passed the qualification with the second result, but in the final he has quite a lot of serious rivals. Russian Sofia Fedorova, who is sixth in the World Cup, will also try to prove herself in snowboarding (slopestyle).

After the failed sprint races in pursuit, our shooting skiers have no chance, not even a ghostly one. But with a good tailwind, we may have an award in ski jumping, where all our athletes, led by Irina Avvakumova, were allowed. She is in the top 5 in the overall World Cup standings and is in contention for a medal in Korea.

Russian married couple Alexander Krushelnitsky and Anastasia Bryzgalova have already reached the semi-finals of double mixed doubles in curling. Their opponents will be the Swiss team, to which we lost in the group, but victory over them will guarantee us another medal at the 2018 Olympics. In the second semi-final match Canada and Norway will meet - one of these teams will become our opponent in last game tournament.

The most anticipated event in Russia in 2014 is, of course, the twenty-second Winter Olympic Games, held in the city of Sochi. An event that promises new discoveries in sports and it is unlikely that anywhere else you can meet so many gifted athletes and established records like at the Olympic competitions.

And one of the brightest, most colorful and sporting disciplines of all Olympic events a sport that attracts many people, both fans and simply lovers of beauty, is figure skating, a sport in which not only physical preparation is important, but also the artistry of performances.

Europe

Let's begin a review of the history of figure skating in winter olympic games from northern Europe, the birthplace of figure skating. Scandinavia holds some of the earliest figure skating records, which have stood for almost a hundred years.

The largest number of gold medals in singles figure skating among men was won by Gillis Grafström, a figure skater from Sweden. Yillis managed to win 3 gold medals at the Olympic Games from 1920 to 1928.

The record for the most gold medals in women's figure skating is held by Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie. Sonya won from 1928 to 1936 and is the first and, to date, only three-time Olympic champion in women's single skating.

Moving a little further south to central Europe, let's focus on the United Kingdom, which at first glance does not have any special achievements in Olympic figure skating. However, Great Britain played an extremely important role in the development of the sport. The Edinburgh Skating Club, founded in 1742, became the first figure skating association in history, and it was the English who became famous in the 19th century for performing complex techniques and figures while skating on ice. The UK later witnessed numerous records, including the double record of Robin Cousins, who performed the longest axel (5m 81cm) and backflip (5m 48cm) on 16 November 1983.

Prominent representatives of figure skating in Europe are not limited to the territory of Great Britain. Lucinda Ruh - a figure skater from Switzerland, is considered the best in performing elements of rotation, and she proved this on April 3, 2003 in New York, setting the record for the longest vertical rotation on skates - Lucinda performed 115 continuous turns on one leg.

Russia

Of course, Russia is rightfully considered the dominant country in figure skating.

The world record for the amount of points for completed programs belongs to the Russian pair of figure skaters Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who in 2013 set the limit at 237.71 points for pair skating. In general, Russia holds the longest championship in pairs figure skating (including former USSR), which was the leader in this discipline for 46 years in a row, from 1964 to 2006.

To list all of Russia’s achievements in this sport, a separate article will be needed, but there are a couple of facts that show Russia’s advantage in figure skating:

The fastest spin on skates was shown by Russian athlete Natalya Kanunnikova on March 27, 2006, she rotated at a speed of 308 revolutions per minute;

The largest ice skating rink, 185.95 m long and 74 m wide, was built in 2003 in the city Nizhny Novgorod, and has a surface area of 12600 sq.m.

Asia.

Next to the east is Asia, which has made great strides in figure skating over the past decade. South Korean representative Yu-Na Kim holds the record for the highest total score in the short program (228.56 points), which she set at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Japan also has its own record holders in figure skating. Japanese figure skater Mao Asada, at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the three triple Axels she completed in a single women's singles competition.

North America

Canadian and American figure skaters also keep up with world achievements in figure skating. The highest score for single skating in the overall standings belongs to a Canadian resident, Patrick Chan, who scored 295.27 points.

Despite the fact that many famous figure skaters live in the United States, this country cannot boast of many world records in figure skating. But the states are home to the most dedicated figure skater - Richard Dwyer, known as the athlete with the longest career as a professional figure skater, who began his career in 1950, and is still dedicated to his hobby.

Figure skating has always been vibrant sport, gathering many different fans, regardless of gender, age and hobbies, and the popularity of this sport is growing every year, and every year the competitions become more colorful, and the elements are more complex, and every year new peaks and records are achieved.

List of all Olympic medalists in figure skating you can look at

In response to the congratulations of journalists in the mixed zone after a short program on. More likely, Russian star figure skating was disingenuous, but she did it very naturally. - It’s no secret that I have the most difficult program in the world. If you skate it well, you will get the highest scores. There are no small details, we worked on everything with my coaches.

- It’s a little strange to ask about rentals, given your result, but still. What do you think?
“I’m very glad that I was able to cope with my anxiety and show a clean performance.

-You have a very interesting dress.
- I have packs on two programs. Last season, when I was still a junior, Zhenya kindly lent me her dress. I think she remembers how uncomfortable it was for me to ride in it! But during competitions, it doesn’t matter what I’m wearing.

- How did you manage to perfect the combination of triple Lutz and triple loop?
- I was very focused on training. I jumped around, they pointed out mistakes to me, and I tried to correct them. Through the work and efforts of the coaches, I managed to cleanly perform not only this cascade, but also the entire short program.

Breaking records. What did Medvedeva and Zagitova do?

Russian figure skaters staged a battle in the short program at the Olympics.

The American singles scullers haven't been that good lately. Tell us what is the secret of success Russian figure skaters?
- To show results, you need to love figure skating. Constantly practice the same thing. I go out on the ice every day and feel how much I love what I do. And I completely devote myself to the training process.

-You look very serious for a 15-year-old girl.
- I just don’t show or spill my emotions - I keep everything to myself. This is my character.

- You had a serious injury. How did you manage to recover?
- I broke my leg about two or three years ago, at the Spartakiad. Yes, the fractures were serious, so I didn’t exercise at all for two or three weeks, but I was able to recover. And then Eteri Georgievna kicked me out. True, she wanted to do this for a long time, because I did not work well and did not understand the seriousness. In this group, no one forces you - if you want, then you train.

- Was this a turning point in your career?
- When Eteri Georgievna kicked me out, I was very upset. I cried. We decided to go back to Izhevsk, and I’m finishing up with figure skating. We went to the coach to thank her, and she said: “Let's try again.” I was so happy then that butterflies flew in my stomach! Probably, if not for this moment, I would not have come to the Olympic Games now.

- You and Zhenya have the same coach. Does this fact increase competition between you?
- I try not to pay attention to competition. I only look at my results. I don’t have the feeling that I want to go out and prove something to someone. The most important thing is to skate clean.