The Bell Center in Montreal finally hosts the World Figure Skating Championships! Four years ago the main start of the season was supposed to take place there, but it was later canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The whole world went into quarantine, skating rinks were closed, and many famous figure skaters were left without awards. During these four years, the world of figure skating has almost completely changed, the favorites of that tournament were completely different athletes, and not all of them continue to participate in competitions.
Watch all the broadcasts of the World Figure Skating Championships on Okko. Don’t miss the main start of the season!
TSCHK and Kihira showdown still healthy
We could have seen the legendary battle of the same Trusov-Shcherbakov-Kostornaya trio for gold at the World Championships, but the coronavirus had other plans.
Alena Kostornaya walked with victorious steps throughout the season. She broke the world record in the short program and then improved her result. Alena, Anya and Sasha competed against each other in three tournaments that season, and in two (the Grand Prix Final and the European Championship) Kostornaya was the winner. The key to success is a stable triple axis + a high second degree + a minimum of errors.
Alena later noted that she was not upset about the cancellation of the main start of the season. “I had an injury, it was before the European Championship, and I had already started treating this injury, I was in an incomprehensible floating position. I tried as hard as I could, I had to finish the season. And when the World Championship was cancelled, I didn’t suffer much. I thought, “Well, cool,” is how the figure skater remembers that moment on the “Skating” podcast.
Alena Kostornaya in the 2019/2020 season
Photo: Maria Kateshova, “Championship”
But Anna Shcherbakova was seriously worried about the cancellation of the tournament. In an interview with RIA Novosti, the skater noted that after the European Championships she suffered a decline and a lack of coordination and she had to work hard to regain her good form.
“We worked very hard to recover and reach our best level for Montreal. I felt like I was fighting inside again, but I was getting fitter, getting better and a few days before my failed start, I really hit my best form. I jumped in, everything worked out for me!
The World Cup could have become Alexandra Trusova’s best tournament. After the news about the cancellation of the World Championships, Sasha posted a video of the free skate on social media, in which she performed five quadruple jumps. In the competitions of that season she could not display that set, but who knows what her fate would have been if she had managed her quadriceps back then, in March 2020?
We recently gave Alexandra a fantastic bonus:
The “Championship” awarded Alexandra Trusova the “Queen of Figures – 2023” award! As was
The main rival of Russian figure skaters at that time was the Japanese Rika Kihira. That season he began adding a quadruple salchow to his free program, although with varying degrees of success: the jump didn’t work in the Grand Prix final, but at the Japanese Championships the judges rated it 12.89 points. Then Rika could definitely force the Tutberidze trio to fight.
Chen again against Hanyu and the ambitious Aliyev
In men’s single skating, a new part of the duel between Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu was expected. That season, Nathan was simply unstoppable: pure performance after pure performance and a phenomenal performance in the Grand Prix Final with a total of 335 points. Yuzuru chased his opponent down to five quads in the free skate, and due to the cancellation of the World Championships, he lost the chance to try again.
In that tournament there would have been a serious fight for bronze, and one of the most important contenders would have been the current European champion, Dmitry Aliev. Preparations for the start were as serious as possible: the skater flew to the United States 10 days before the start to conduct a preparatory training camp, but the tournament was ultimately canceled.
“You gather all your emotions, get ready to give the final push. Throughout the season I went through a rather difficult path, both with victories and defeats, but I endured everything, I overcame myself, I pushed myself to the maximum in the World Cup and this is what happened,” Dmitry said in an interview.
Dima is still excited; sometimes he has to apologize for this:
Why did Aliyev and Rukavitsyn even apologize?
From the class of 2003, Arthur Danielyan shot that season: it was he who was preparing to go to Montreal for the second installment. At the Russian Championships in Krasnoyarsk, Arthur made a grandiose comeback, moving from 12th place to the final second place, and then confirmed his success at the European Championships, winning silver.
Boykova and Kozlovsky had perhaps the best season of their careers
Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky experienced rapid rise that season. They could rightly be called the first couple of the Russian national team: only the Grand Prix final was unsuccessful, and the couple won all other starts. At the European Championships in Graz, Sasha and Dima broke the world record in the short program, scoring more than 82 points; It previously belonged to the Chinese couple Wenjing Sui / Han Cong.
Based on total points, Boykova/Kozlovsky came as close as possible to the best results of their rivals from China. The leaders of the Chinese team spent the season without errors and it is not known how their duel with the Russian skaters would have turned out.
Alexandra Boykova/Dmitry Kozlovsky in the 2019/2020 season
Photo: Maria Kateshova, “Championship”
Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov were also able to give their opinion: throughout the season they put in good performances and only 0.47 points separated them from the gold of the Russian Championship.
The current leaders of the Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Gallyamov skating pair did not qualify for that tournament due to their poor performance at the Russian Championships. But it was at this moment that a turning point occurred in the careers of Nastya and Sasha: a few days after the cancellation of the World Cup, it became known about their transfer to Tamara Moskvina.
Sinitsina and Katsalapov could change the dance game
A sensation has just occurred in ice dancing: at the Euro Cup in Graz, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov defeated Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron. The victory of the Russian couple seemed unimaginable: the French seemed to be the absolute leaders, who could not be displaced from the first step of the podium.
Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov in the 2019/2020 season
Photo: Maria Kateshova, “Championship”
But then it happened in Austria, and their duel in Montreal, the city where Gabriela and Guillaume were training at the time, could have been even more interesting. The pandemic made its own adjustments: the battle did not take place.
It is curious that after that tournament, Gabriela and Guillaume did not cross paths with Vika and Nikita in any competition until the 2022 Olympic Games. Sinitsina and Katsalapov achieved two other important victories in their careers in the absence of Papadakis and Cizeron.
What will the World Cup in Montreal be like this year?
Will Malinin will take the gold with a quadruple axel and the Davis/Smolkin debut. All the intrigues of the World Cup!
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