There has been a significant addition to Plushenko’s Angels. Russia 2021 runner-up Makar Ignatov will now train under the direction of Evgeniy Viktorovich. In recent years, the skater has gone through a serious crisis in his career and clearly needed changes. But can Plushenko be the one to help Makar reach the next level?
How is the Evgeniy Academy doing overall in educating single skaters?
More information on Ignatov’s transition:
Makar Ignatov joined the group with Evgeni Plushenko
Does Plushenko have problems with single skaters?
The Plushenko Academy has never been distinguished by strong men. The main successes of the “Angels” at the moment come from the individual skaters. The transitions of Alexandra Trusova and Alena Kostornaya attracted enormous attention in the academy. Under the leadership of Plushenko, the girls performed with varying degrees of success, but definitely raised the status of the academy to the highest level, which was then supported by Sofia Muravyova, Veronika Zhilina and Sofia Titova. Now Plushenko’s Angels is one of the best training schools for figure skaters. But what about the boys?
Long before Trusova and Kostornaya caused a stir with their transitions from Tutberidze to Plushenko, Vladimir Samoilov followed the same path. The figure skater, who now represents Poland, studied at the academy under Yulia Lavrenchuk and Alexey Vasilevsky from 2017 to 2019. The first joint season was a success: Samoilov placed sixth at the Russian Championships and third in the final of the National Cup. At that time, these were the best results in the skater’s career. However, then a decline followed and the next year Vladimir was already in 11th place at both the Russian Championships and the Cup final. The skater noticed that Plushenko did not participate in his preparation, so when Evgeni said goodbye Samoilov followed Lavrenchuk and Vasilevsky.
Vladimir Samoilov
Photo: RIA Novosti
In May 2018, coach Alexander Volkov began working for Plushenko’s Angels, who came to the academy with his student Artyom Kovalev. At that time, the skater was 14 years old and his results were unstable. But in three years with the Angels, Artyom managed to progress, as can be seen from his results. If in the first season on the new skating rink Kovalev reached 14th place at the Russian Championships, two years later he already took 8th place and quadruple jumps appeared on his skates; It was in “Angels” that Artyom learned Salchow.
“Evgeni Plushenko gave me many valuable things: he taught me how to prepare for the start. This man had nerves of steel. When he went out on the ice, everyone was afraid. I wanted the same. We work a lot with him. He helped me do an excellent triple Axel and on “Angels” I jumped a quadruple Salchow. Evgeniy Viktorovich helped a lot on the jump,” Kovalev told Sport24.
But Volkov was always the main coach of the skater, so when the mentor decided to leave for another skating rink, Artyom followed him.
Kovalev gave an interview to the “Championship” program:
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“When I was there, my skates somehow hit the radiator.” Brilliant interview with Artyom Kovalev
Plushenko’s Angels had a large influx of students in 2020. In addition to many talented individual athletes, Leonid Sviridenko, who has five quadruple jumps, also joined the academy. The skater trained under the guidance of Sergei Rozanov and this season he performed very little in minor tournaments. At the end of the season, Leonid left the Angels along with his coach and began working on a move to the Czech national team, which later fell through.
In early 2021, Azerbaijani Vladimir Litvintsev joined Plushenko’s Angels in Sergei Rozanov’s group. He stayed in the academy for only a few months and only managed to compete in the World Championships; There he failed the short program and did not qualify for the free program. Litvintsev then, like Sviridenko, followed Rozanov to another skating rink.
Other promising skaters, such as Mark Lukin and Yegor Rukhin, also came to Plushenko’s Angels, but they didn’t stay long.
Will Ignatov change the situation?
Now the Plushenko Academy focuses mainly on the education of young skaters. Last season, Nikita Sarnovsky and Maxim Avtushenko represented the Angels at the youth level. The skaters have not yet shown good results, they lack stability. But the boys master the quadruple jumps and Nikita usually has both a lutz and a flip in his arsenal. Therefore, it is too early to draw conclusions about his readiness; Typically, single athletes mature in their late 20s. Nikita’s brother Kirill Sarnovsky began competing as an adult last season and took ninth place in both of his Grand Prix stages; The skater missed the second part of the season.
Next season, the “Angels” will be represented by two more young people – Timofey and Dmitry Shelkovnikov, who come from Kirill Davydenko’s group. But the biggest transfer that took place at the Plushenko Academy this offseason was, of course, the transfer of Makar Ignatov. The skater loudly announced himself in the 2019/2020 season, when he helped Alexander Samarin and Dmitry Aliev to organize the Russian podium at the Grand Prix stage of the Rostelecom Cup. From that moment on, Ignatov began to periodically show promising results; At the 2021 Russian Championships he took second place. At the 2021 Japanese Grand Prix, Makar became the first Russian skater to perform four quads in a free skate. It seemed that Ignatov could fight for a leading position in the team, but then he was affected by a serious decline that has haunted him for more than two years.
Makar Ignatov
Photo: Dmitry Golubovich, “Championship”
Makar decided to reboot Evgeni Plushenko’s career and this, of course, is a controversial choice. As we can see from past experiences, Plushenko’s Angels do not have a successful track record of working with men. On the other hand, Makar has nothing to lose now and Evgeniy has something to gain. If Plushenko manages to get Ignatov out of the crisis and achieve results, he will establish himself as a coach capable of working with individual skaters. And then he will attract even more talented skaters, from whom they can become stars.
The result of this cooperation is unknown. But it will definitely be interesting to see the tandem of Plushenko and Ignatov next season!
