After Russia’s skaters were barred from the World Championships, the season’s competitive arc closed at the Channel One Cup. There, Anna Shcherbakova’s team edged out Mark Kondratyuk’s squad. Alexandra Trusova chose not to participate, citing a desire to step back after the Beijing Olympic Games. The Shanghai-to-Beijing journey was grueling for Eteri Tutberidze’s trainee, as Trusova became the first skater in the world to perform five quadruple jumps in a free program in the Chinese capital. Yet that feat did not topple Shcherbakova, who delivered a more compact, ultra-fast elements lineup and still claimed the gold in the individual event, while Kamila Valieva earned the highest standard recognition in the team competition. The broadcast captured Trusova’s visible upset and her exclamations about medals and expectations, reflecting the pressure surrounding the team.
Public debate followed the second statement from the athlete, with discussions about whether Trusova would retire or switch coaches, a decision the skating world has seen before. Evgenia Medvedeva, a two-time world champion, pivoted after a similar moment in 2018. As spring arrived, no formal announcement had been made. Trusova appeared at shows organized by Tutberidze’s team in Minsk and Moscow, signaling she was keeping options open while exploring new directions.
In Moscow, Trusova staged a new routine that seemed to speak to retirement without saying it outright. Backed by the stirring ballad I Will Not Let Down, performed by Yolka, her performance drew a standing ovation and suggested a possible inflection point in her career. Although the routine showcased five quadruple jumps in principle, she had previously scaled back numbers due to an injury sustained during a fall, and some jumps carried mistakes. Transitioning from juniors to seniors, Trusova had yet to capture a gold medal at the world level, a gap she would need to bridge to reaffirm her place on the international stage. At present, the timeline for her return to major competition remained unresolved.
During this period, Trusova also reconnected with choreographer Dmitry Mikhailov, who has affiliations with Evgeni Plushenko’s academy. This collaboration marked a return to a training lineage she briefly left in 2020, only to rejoin Khrustalny, Tutberidze’s camp, later. A teaser emerged on Trusovа’s Telegram channel: a video captioned We are preparing a surprise, hinting at upcoming developments.
Questions about retirement also circled Shcherbakova, though she emphasized that she was evaluating her future with a cautious mindset. After the Channel One Cup, she admitted her mind was swirling with uncertainty and a desire to rest and reassess. Earlier, she had expressed a strong wish to continue skating, stating she could not imagine life without the sport and that a clear next move had not yet materialized.
Leading into the spring, Shcherbakova appeared motivated to extend her competitive career, though she acknowledged ambiguity about what the next season would bring for Russian skaters. Her résumé includes Olympic gold in the individual event and multiple world and national medals, reflecting a deep well of experience even if some major titles had eluded her—defining a remarkable, yet evolving, competitive arc. Retirement remained a distant possibility, but she maintained that training for a fresh season would continue, with plans evolving as the landscape of the sport shifted.
As the calendar turned to May, there was talk of a substantial recovery window and a broad preparation horizon. There were no fixed competition plans announced, but the sense was clear: the focus was on returning to the ice and refining programs. The coaching team and skaters discussed a readiness to pursue next-season opportunities, potentially avoiding new quad attempts initially and concentrating on program clarity and performance quality. The aim was to preserve momentum while managing physical durability and artistic expression—central to maintaining an edge at the world level.
Meanwhile, the Olympic team’s dance duo, Nikita Katsalapov and Victoria Sinitsina, navigated a taxing season marked by back pain and a mid-season withdrawal from the Russian Championships. They nonetheless claimed European glory and earned a silver in the Olympic event, trailing only the French champions Gabrielle Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron in the individual standings. The pair confirmed plans to continue skating, asserting that Russia’s exclusion from certain ISU events would shape but not derail their trajectory, and emphasizing that the team would pursue upcoming training camps and schedules with renewed focus.
On the younger front, Daria Usacheva’s Olympic season carried its own weight of challenge. Her victory path was interrupted by a serious hip issue that flared during the Grand Prix in Japan. A dramatic moment in the warm-up left her unable to complete a jump, and she left the arena supported by her teammates. After a months-long recovery, she returned to training and performed in a Moscow show, choosing to adjust her program and approach to jumps in order to safeguard long-term health. Usacheva later spoke openly about her gradual return, prioritizing controlled progression over peak performance in the short term, and focusing on sustainable training volumes as she moved forward.