Trusova and Kolyada : One of the main intrigues of the upcoming figure skating tournament at the 2022 Olympics remains the composition of the teams for the team competition. Russia has a lot of options, so the country’s Figure Skating Federation will have a lot of headaches ahead of the start. The first rumors about the possible composition of participants from Russia were shared by the Olympic champion in ice dancing Natalya Bestemyanova.
On February 4, the 2022 Olympics and the figure skating team tournament will start in Beijing. The competition will be held for the third time in history: eight years ago in Sochi, the Russians became the winners, four years ago in Pyeongchang – the second after Canada. This year, the Russians are considered the main favorites, although in some disciplines the same Canadians and Americans can get ahead of us, and the Japanese are not asleep either.
They promised to decide on the composition of the Russian national team for the Beijing 2022 team directly on the eve of February 4. As stated in the FFKKR, they want to wait for the applications of other teams in order to build on their participants. However, there is information that in the team tournament at the Olympic Games-2022, the Russian team will not have substitutions. This was announced by the Olympic champion in ice dancing Natalya Bestemyanova on the air of the Fetisov program on the Zvezda TV channel.
“I heard that in order to avoid all this talk, they want to put the first numbers in the team. No substitutions. In any case, now they are talking about it. It will be difficult for men: the commander has skated, and in a day you will go out to the individual. And everyone else will sigh ,” said Bestemyanova.
Recall that in the team tournament each team can make no more than two substitutions. For example, put one single skater in the short, the other in the free skate, just like in ice dancing or sports couples. Substitutions, especially in the Russian team, could give a chance to the “second” numbers of the team to become Olympic champions. So in the women’s single skating of Russia, from which Kamila Valieva, Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova will go to Beijing 2022 , someone will lose not only an individual victory, but also team gold.
The first number of the Russian national team among women is Valieva, who became the champion of Russia and Europe in the Olympic season. Thus, according to Bestemyanova’s rumors, Shcherbakova and Trusova will be deprived of the team tournament. In men, the favorite of the national team is Mark Kondratyuk , ahead of Mikhail Kolyada this season , who four years ago was the sole representative of the Russian men’s single skating in the Pyeongchang team tournament.
In ice dancing, according to Bestemyanova, Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov will have to perform . But the pair of Alexander Zhulin, like no one else, needs a replacement at the Beijing 2022 team tournament. Katsalapov has back problems, so four performances at the Olympics are unlikely to benefit him, but a replacement in one of the dances will allow the duet Alexander Stepanova / Ivan Bukin to compete for the “gold” of the Olympics.
The number one sports couple in Russia, Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov , should have no problem with a large number of performances at the 2022 Olympics, but again, someone from the bunch of Evgeny Tarasov / Vladimir Morozov and Alexander Boykov / Dmitry Kozlovsky will lose a likely victory at Games in Beijing.
On the other hand, the victory of the Russian team at the 2022 Olympics is not guaranteed even if the first numbers perform in the team tournament. In any case, the Russians have competitive Canadians, Americans and Japanese in their rivals. The line-ups of all teams will be announced very soon: there are less than two weeks left before the Beijing Games.
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