Russian machine churning out one teen star after another
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— Given the Babel of languages at the Olympics, sometimes we are at the mercy of interpreters.
So . . . this, attributed to audacious, precocious, preternaturally mature Alina Zagitova: “Zhenia and I are friends. We feel the rivalry when we come to competition but it is not maleficent.”
Audacious, precocious, preternaturally mature — but 15. Maleficent? Not buying it. Something lost or thesaurus-inflated in translation.
Zhenia is the Russian diminutive for Evgenia, as in Evgenia Medvedeva, the gamine Muscovite with the raven braided bun and the cocoabean eyes. Looks like a miniature porcelain version of the actress Rachel Weisz, a.k.a. Mrs. James Bond. She set a world record in the short program competition the other day, which was reset about 10 minutes later by Zagitova, leaving many to wonder, hmm, is Medvedeva — the two-time and reigning world champion, the figure skating impresario who went undefeated for almost two years before being edged by Zagitova at the Grand Prix final in December — about to miss her moment before it even arrives?
They’re just coming too fast and furious, the female prodigies from Mother Russia.
One of these two young “ladies” — because that’s what the competition is formally called, ladies’ single skating — will doubtless be standing atop the highest podium after Friday’s free skate, which would, oddly enough, be only Russia’s second Olympic female champion, in the footsteps of Adelina Sotnikova’s triumph in Sochi.
Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond was sitting third after the short competition, with Gabrielle Daleman, from Newmarket, in seventh.
They have been the objects of much curiosity, the Russian girls. It would be natural to suspect a keen rivalry yet the teenagers, who train in Moscow under renowned coaches Eteri Tutberidze and Sergei Dudakov, insist they’re BFFs.
“I hear so many news that Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva are opponents on the ice and off the ice,” sniffed Medvedeva, with all the disdain that an 18-year-old can muster. “We are humans, we communicate as usual, we are friends, we are girls, young girls. We can talk about everything to each other.’’
But of course they’re ruthlessly competitive.
“When we take the ice, this is sport and we must fight,” said Medvedeva, who certainly sounds, of the two, like she’s applied Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to figure skating. “In every competition I feel like a little war. This is sport, this is war. We must show our best, no matter if you are nervous or not. When you take the ice you are alone. Yes, your friend is competing, but you have to fight.”
She definitely has a feisty nature, Medvedeva, making an impassioned plea last month before the International Olympic Committee to allow Russian participation at these Games despite the systemic doping her country had orchestrated in Sochi. Russia, as “Olympic Athletes from Russia,” has yet to win a single gold in Pyeongchang but has run afoul of the testers, with curler Aleksandr Krushelnitsky coming up positive for a banned substance and stripped of his bronze. A curler.
Anyway, Medvedeva is viewed as the more technically savvy of the two teens, and was annoyed with her short program combination, despite the fleeting world record. Zagitova, in just her first year on the senior circuit, has been an artistic supernova. But she jumps triple-smooth as well, if drawing rather a lot of criticism for placing all her jumps in the second half of her long program where they carry a value-added score. Ditto for the short, actually.
“I was very happy when I saw the score, but I did not expect it,” said Zagitova, after knocking off her 82.92. “This is the best performance of my life but there is still room to grow. I could have more speed going into the jumps, the landings could have been smoother, there could have been more emotions.” Fifteen. And there are even more juvenile sensations back home, younger, bendier, some of them turning quads in practice.
At the recent junior Grand Prix, Russian girls — aged 14, 13 and 14 — finished 1-2-3. And 5. And 6.
Beijing calling.