Empress of the Quads: what surprises is Tuktamysheva preparing for the season?

The news that Elizaveta Tuktamysheva had restored her quadruple sheepskin coat appeared in early May – then the group of Alexei Mishin was at a training camp in Armenia. The skater learned the element before, but she went only once – at the Russian Championship – in 2021, but the attempt was unsuccessful and, as her fans say, the Empress fell out of the jump. Since then, the quartet has not performed in official competitions and has focused on clean execution of programs and her signature triple axel during the Olympic season. At the Russian Championship in the short program, she disappointed him only once at the most critical moment. Tuktamysheva eventually took only seventh place and missed the opportunity to go to the Olympic Games – she did not get the third.

However, the Empress has an interesting pattern: she doesn’t qualify for the Olympics, but she has a consistently strong post-Olympic season. So, seven years ago, he jumped triple axel for the first time and won all international starts and became the bronze medalist of the Grand Prix finals after the 2018 Games. And judging by the emerging news, Tuktamysheva’s new post-Olympic season threatens to get too strong.

In addition to the restored quadruple sheepskin coat, the athlete began to learn two more quads – salchow and lutz.

The figure skater’s coach, Tatyana Mishina, said that Tuktamysheva plans to add a quadruple jump to her free program, but their number will depend on the degree of readiness of the elements. The coach does not exclude that during the competition period, Elizaveta will jump both a sheepskin coat and a salchow.

“Of course he has plans, for this he trains them to show in competitions. Of course, before each start it can be seen that the jump is ready, because one jump should not affect the entire program. At the same time, a lot depends on the mood, but Lisa has a very serious condition. She teaches a sheepskin coat, salchow and lutz,” Match TV quotes Mishina.

Tuktamysheva is 25 years old and is today the only figure skater in the world over the age of 20 to do the quadruple jump. She competes on equal terms with her younger rivals and does not plan to end her career yet. In one of the interviews the athlete gave at the beginning of the summer, he admitted that he was motivated to go even further with the goal of learning the quad jumps.

“I want to learn more quads. I want to jump on them, overcome my fear. I want to try to get into a lutz, salchow, jump consistently in a sheepskin coat. If, at the training camp in Armenia, I could jump in a sheepskin coat in a bad, somewhat relaxed state, then other quads are possible.

Whoever makes a triple axel, as Aleksey Nikolaevich said, can in principle assemble a quadruple salchow and a sheepskin coat. I somehow fucked Salchow, I fell a quarter, but in principle everything is real.

As an athlete (and we’ve developed such a character since childhood), I want to maximize everything I can from my body. It is possible to master other quads according to my physiology and technique. And I want to learn about them, not to prove anything to others. I want to prove to myself that I can do it, that I made these quads at my age. For me, this will be my little victory, ”says Tuktamysheva, the press service of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR).

Olympic champion Natalya Bestemyanova, in a comment to socialbites.ca, evaluated Tuktamysheva’s ability to perform a quadruple jump, and also noted that it is impossible to predict which elements will do better.

“I think Lisa will be successful. He has great triple jumps – why can’t he do a quad too? I am very happy for him. Suspension of skaters from international competitions? Who will forbid athletes to improve, to become the best version of themselves yesterday? No one. Well done.

Which of the quad jumps will be given to him better? It is impossible to say here, it is all individual, ”said the former skater.

In general, Tuktamysheva spends her last years at a fairly high and, most importantly, stable level. For example, in the 2020-21 season, she not only tried to make a quad sheepskin coat, but also won the stage of the Grand Prix in Russia, taking second place at the World Championships in Stockholm, losing only to Anna Shcherbakova. Successful performance at the world championship (the entire pedestal was occupied by the Russians, after which Alexandra Trusova took bronze) allowed Russia to get three quotas for the 2022 Olympic Games. Then, as a captain, she led the Russian team to victory. in the world team championship. Tuktamysheva started the Olympic season with a victory in the first stage of the Russian Cup, followed by a scattering of silver medals – the Empress became the second stage in the Finnish Cup Challenger and two stages of the Grand Prix in Canada and Russia. She later qualified for the final, which was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is noteworthy that in these starts, Tuktamysheva lost only to Kamila Valieva, who did not lose a single start in the season before the personal tournament of the Beijing Olympics.

Because of her stability, it was Tuktamysheva who was considered one of the main favorites of the Games in Beijing before the start of the Russian championship. At that time, it was not very clear in which situation Alexander Trusova would be suitable for the national championship (the skater withdrew from the Grand Prix stage in Japan due to a stress fracture in her foot), there were doubts about Anna Shcherbakova. But at the championship, both students of Eteri Tutberidze managed to take the podium, taking second and third places, respectively, making Tuktamysheva only the first substitute for both the European Championships and the Olympic Games.

Later, the skater admitted that she did not have any troubles, as she did not reach the main start of four years.

“There were no disappointments. Our athletes’ skating was just purely a sporting interest. Moreover, this is not the first time I have participated in the Olympics and, in principle, I already know these feelings from experience.

Also, I could not rightfully get into the national team: the competition in single figure skating is very high. It makes sense that girls with quad jumps, with good schedules, go to the Games and perform very valuable. The trio representing our country is indeed the strongest in Russia today. There were no negative emotions while watching the Olympic Games, ”Cosmopolitan quoted Tuktamysheva.