Entering her 12th adult season, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. The student of Alexei Mishin made an offensive error in the short program, placing only seventh at the Russian Championship – he broke the triple axle that bears his signature. Until that moment, the figure skater was considered one of the main contenders for the trip to China, but in the end it turned out to be the first reserve team for both the European Championships and the Olympic Games.
Tuktamysheva is not lucky with the Olympics – these are the third Games where Mishina’s student did not go. However, here are the seasons that follow the main four-year start, the 25-year-old athlete usually excels – seven years ago he jumped the triple axel for the first time and won all the international starts, it was five years ago that he became the bronze medalist of the Grand Prix finals.
Tuktamysheva will not step back from the peculiar tradition of the post-Olympic seasons – the figure skater restored her quad sheepskin coat at the training camp in Armenia.
For the first and only time, Tuktamysheva was content at the 2020 Russian Championships in a quadruple sheepskin coat, but then the element failed, the athlete fell out of it. Since then, the trio seemed to have given up on a four-turn jump, competing with younger skaters thanks to Axel. But even with an ultra-si element, Tuktamysheva put up a very serious fight – she won a silver medal at the World Championships in Stockholm, helped the Russian team win gold at the World Tag Team Championship, and during the Olympic season she was twice runner-up at the Grand Prix stages, only she lost to Kamila Valieva, whom everyone lost until now.
It is possible that Tuktamysheva and her team of coaches did not deliberately make such a complexity of the content, realizing that the quad sheepskin coat is not stable.
The emphasis was on the precise and precise implementation of all other elements in the Russian team, including the triple axle, which only Valieva was able to jump cleanly (Alexandra Trusova is struggling with triplexel, but has not been able to perform it cleanly so far ). However, with the Beijing Olympics coming to an end, without international starts in the pre-season, Tuktamysheva has the opportunity to stabilize the jump and show that she can’t finish at 25 for sure.
In the presence of a four-piece sheepskin coat, it is still difficult to argue about how to build an arbitrary program of a figure skater. Here it is worth noting that last season Tuktamysheva performed a triple axel twice – in a solo and in a double cascade with a sheepskin coat. Now the question may arise – will the skater and his coaching team do a quad toe loop and two triples in the program? The answer to this will be given in the new season.
The athlete’s mentor, Alexei Mishin, noted that it was difficult to restore the quadruped sheepskin coat, but it was possible thanks to teamwork.
“This is the result of the systematic work of our entire team, as well as the enthusiasm, perseverance and talent of Liza herself. Everyone will tell you that it is difficult to achieve,” Sport24 quotes Mishin.
Tuktamysheva, St. He joked that he was inspired to restore the quadruple sheepskin coat from the fourth consecutive championship of the St. Petersburg Zenit. The club claimed a three-round victory before the end of the schedule in the Russian championship.
“I feel inspired by the fourth Zenit championship. But I immediately admit that if the team wins the fifth championship, I will not be able to support it in a five-piece sheepskin coat, ”says Tuktamysheva’s Sport Day After Day.
To date, Tuktamysheva is the only figure skater in the world who is over 20 years old, engaged in the quadruple jump. This could come in handy next season, as the International Skating Union (ISU) plans to raise the age limit from 15 to 17 to participate in adult competitions (the current leader of the Russian women’s team, Valieva, recently turned 16). Thus, Tuktamysheva could return to the main team of the national team. However, due to the fact that Russian skaters are excluded from participation in all tournaments under the auspices of an international organization, the figure skater will have to show his restored quadruped sheepskin coat only at Russian competitions.
At the same time, quad jumps at the adult level (also at the junior level) are skipped only by Russian athletes. The world community has almost gotten used to the ultra-c elements from young figure skaters in four rounds – Valieva’s world records are Trusova’s five-place quads at the Olympics. But in 20 years the performance of the quadruple jump from a figure skater could become a sensation and show that “mature female skating” also exists in Russia.
Coach Alexander Zhulin, a specialist in working with couples (their wards, the dance duet of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, won team gold at the Beijing Olympics and silver in the individual championship), also drew attention to Tuktamysheva’s technique, but wondered which one. Jumps will be shown in tournaments.
“I’m happy for Lisa! It will make her more competitive with our other girls.
The only question is where do we display these elements? In training it is one thing, but in competition it is completely different. Lisa is a real fascination for me!
He is an incredible and talented athlete! She has such an accurate technique that even at the age of 25 she copes with such complex elements. Great!” — quotes Zhulin Sport24.