It's no secret that figure skaters, in order to take part in world championships, need not only to climb the podium of the national championship, but also to have a certain technical minimum fulfilled.

The selection system for such competitions is built in such a way that the strongest athletes go to the main starts of the season. At one time, this role was played by the so-called school, then by qualifications, now here is the technical assessment received by the athlete over the past two seasons at international competitions ISU, and in two types of programs.

It was this ill-fated technical minimum that became the stumbling block for a number of domestic skaters, whether juniors or adults, to obtain a pass to the Hungarian Debrecen and the American Boston.

As a result, the composition of the figure skaters representing Belarus at the world championships has slightly thinned compared to last year: this time none of the junior girls got to Hungary, and none of the men went to the North American continent.

This season, a situation has arisen where quantity does not yet mean quality, because among the 29 participants in the championship of Belarus, held in early February on the ice of the Minsk-Arena complex, only a few girls had a technical minimum and only in one of the types of programs.

February attempts to achieve the desired result for the World Junior Championships among the top three winners of the championship at international competitions in Miskolc, Vienna and Obersdorf ended in failure.

Similarly, both of our adult single skaters: the current champion of the country Alexei Melekhin and the more titled Pavel Ignatenko, before the time allotted by the ISU rules, failed to earn a sufficient amount of the technical minimum at the tournament in the capital of Bulgaria, not to mention the champion of Belarus Yanina Makeenko, who has a full preparation for the season so it didn't work out.

As a result, this year at the World Junior Championships in mid-March, the country was represented only by Yakov Zenko, as well as the dance couple Maria Oleinik and Yuri Gulitsky. And two weeks later, a sports couple Tatyana Danilova and Nikolai Kamenchuk, dancers Victoria Kovaleva and Yuri Belyaev flew to Boston.

By and large, the performances of our juniors, given that this time the Belarusian team consisted of two-thirds of the debutants of the tournament of such high level, turned out to be quite worthy.

This also applies to the fifteen-year-old Yakov Zenko, who had his first junior season and the first experience of participating in the World Championship. As, however, with Maria Oleinik, she only paired up with Yuri Gulitsky in May last.

The last competitive experience does not occupy - with Evgenia Tkachenko in 2012 he turned out to be the Olympic champion of the first Youth Games, entered the top twenty of the best dance duets of last year's tournament, taking the final 17th place among 27 couples with a total of 107.89 points.

However, immediately after the championship, the tandem ended its existence, and Yuri had to look for a new partner, because Evgenia Tkachenko had decided the day before to say goodbye to big sport and begin preparations for studying at the Academy of Management.

Perhaps she was held back by the dream of getting to the main start of the season for every junior, therefore, knowing about the imminent parting, the guys were preparing with a firm decision not only to be there, but also to demonstrate their best skates at the first and last World Championships for them.

So this time, Gulitsky had to pass a kind of aptitude test to see if he and his new partner could come close to the result of last year.

Practically succeeded, although it did not succeed in surpassing - the final 17th place among the 31st duet with a score of 106.31 points, which is 1.58 points lower than its own indicator of last year. The result of the short program - 45.02 points (22.85 - for the execution technique, 22.17 - for the components), free program - 62.29 points (28.71 - for the execution technique, 32.58 - for the components).

Maria, by the way, is a pupil Russian school, besides, the couple spent a significant part of the season in Odintsovo near Moscow, training in a group with Alexei Gorshkov.

Not without neighbors in the preparation of Yakov Zenko, who has recently been the ward of the famous coach Eteri Tutberidze and whom Russian fans consider conditionally theirs, as, however, Ukrainians and Yuri Belyaev, a native of Odessa, conditionally consider theirs.

Among 38 guys, Yakov took 17th place with a score of 174.39 points (22nd in the short and 15th in the free). The sum of points scored on the basis of the results of the short program was 57.67 points (30.60 for the technique of execution, 27.07 for the components), the free program - 116.72 points (60.36 for the technique of performance, 56.36 for components).

A year ago, in Tallinn, the country was represented by the more experienced Anton Karpuk, but his result was not so high - only 45.67 points and only 35th place among forty participants in short program.

For another participant of last year's championship, Darya Batur, the season did not turn out in the most successful way, and for the reasons mentioned above, our girls were not at this "celebration of life". The tradition of participation, or rather, non-participation of junior sports couples, continued this year.

AT pair skating the Belarusians nevertheless performed, but already at the adult world championship, the results of the performance at which for the Belarusians are not so satisfactory.

The “Boston Tea Party” for the Belarusian team took place, although the possibility that this time this cup would bypass the compatriots took place, taking into account the results of our guys at the last European Championship.

However, both pairs skated far from unmistakably, which provided a reason for referee team deprive yourself of the chance to get grades comparable to your best results. It is possible that one of the reasons could be the problem of acclimatization, but it is clear that the lack of experience cannot explain what happened.

Indeed, for Victoria Kovaleva and Yuri Belyaev, this is already the fourth world championship, which took place for them only in the short program, because the result obtained was 40.82 (of which 18.22 and 22.60 were for the technique and components, respectively) balla allowed the duo to climb into standings only for the 28th position out of 30 vacancies.

The place is similar to the result of a year ago in China, with the difference that at that time the Belarusians earned 41.08 points for the short program, while the technique score was 6.68 points lower compared to last year's result, but the second score increased by 2 .29 points.

Tatyana Danilova and Nikolai Kamenchuk were 20th among 22 sports couples with a total score of 45.56, of which 25.41 were for technique and 20.15 for components. Maria Polyakova and Nikita Bochkov, who represented the country a year ago, took 17th place among 19 duets in China with a score of 46.17 points in the short program.

By the way, both of our pairs, both sports and dance, are the only adult athletes in the national team. There is no reserve in these types, but if promising juniors show promise among the dancers, and despite the fact that two duets - Anastasia Tkacheva and Vadim Davidovich, Kristina Kaunatskaya and Yan Lukovsky - broke up in the first half of the season after participating in the Grand Prix stages, you can to say that we have a younger generation.

But in pair skating, despite certain attempts by the BSC to create several junior pairs, the prospects are far from bright. Meanwhile, Belarus has two quotas for the next European Championship in this type of program, and even now there are doubts about whether they will be used in full.

But last year's champion title in pair skating was confirmed by Canadians Megan Duhamel and Eric Radford, who flawlessly performed their programs.

In second place, as a year ago, the Chinese Wenjing Sui and Cong Han, the third were the athletes representing Germany, Ukrainian Olena Savchenko and Frenchman Bruno Massot.

The prize three was left without the Russians, the presenters Russian couples, they are also the Olympic champions of the Games in Sochi, Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, as well as Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who returned this season, are located, respectively, on the fourth and sixth lines of the tournament table.

In ice dancing for the second year in a row, the French Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron became champions, shaming the skeptics. But the next steps, to the great delight of the local public, were already occupied by North American duets - Maya and Alex Shibutani, who had a brilliant season, at the end of which they can be congratulated on silver medals, as well as Madison Chalk and Evan Bates - on bronze.

Now already two-time champion of the world, Javier Fernandez once again demonstrates how much he cares about the authorities, giving out the cleanest skating, unlike his more talented rivals. To your collection, which already has four European golds and the award of the most the highest standard last year's World Cup, the Spaniard added another gold medal from Boston.

Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan, despite a clear advantage in the short program, could not cope with the free program, and, like a year ago, had to be content with only second place. For the first time, the young Chinese child prodigy Boyang Jin climbed to the third step of the podium, churning out four-turn jumps one after another and promising to ruin the life of the leaders in the very near future.

The best of the Russians was another debutant of the World Cup, Mikhail Kolyada, who took fourth place in the standings.

Last year, the world applauded Elizaveta Tuktamysheva from Russia, who this time failed to qualify for the main tournaments. A year later, another Russian, 2015 World Junior Champion, 2016 European Champion, young Evgenia Medvedeva won her first senior world championship. Anna Pogorilaya supported her teammate, who finished third in two types of programs, ahead of Ashley Wagner from the USA.

Not a single post in the LiveJournal feed, how is it? ((Yes, many have cooled off to FC, including myself, but why not discuss the World Cup? And I still can’t stand FB.

Due to the time difference, of course, the screenings go almost backwards... I just came in and realized that I had already missed Hotarikov-2. So, you can not turn on Alena yet.

Dancing. In a short dance, I managed to catch the last two warm-ups. Katsalapova and Sinitsyna then caught up in the recording. In general, the impression of the dances: the art is still in great debt, despite the sympathy for the Kumsiks, Weavers, Stepanova-Bukin and the Piper-Pol dances of this season. Shibutani are happy, yes. But by and large, one could safely turn on the Papadakis immediately and end the viewing there. So not to "look for the sake of looking", but so that must! - it is, of course, only them. And I can’t figure out their phenomenon and put it into words. I saw them twice live on the show - and no-thing. Their performances were an empty place for me. Yes, and last season's PT, from which everyone began to gasp at once, I made out only at the World Cup. Justified for myself by the fact that I was not particularly interested in the season at all. And here are the new dances. CT on Europe again did not impress even once, but PT became an event. And now, suddenly, CT has become an event. How that happens, I don't understand. And I do not understand what they take. In the case of Tessa and Scott, I can explain my delight: because the dancers are from God, because any style fits like a native and looks like a standard in their performance, be it latin or modern; plus a rare chemistry between them, plus purely human attractive qualities that peep through in their dances ... in short, words can be explained. In the case of Natalie with Fab - the same thing, there are the right words: creative, beautiful, wonderful, charming, etc. I don't understand about this couple. To be honest, I can't even say that I like them. I don’t know anything about them at all (and I don’t aspire, somehow I now fence myself off from “getting to know better”). Well, young, slim, light, in a very close hug all the time - OK. A very beautiful girl and a boy who doesn’t like me at all, even something unpleasant (sorry). But what kind of dances do they have, already three dances, which unconditionally make them a new, unique phenomenon in the world of FC?! The most striking thing for me is that I don’t remember these dances from the first time (and even from the second) in the sense of any specific movements from the word at all. When they finish the performance, I can’t remember what exactly they just skated - not just elements, but basically anything. It was like hypnosis. And it's not clear what was there... Well, except for the magical music that I love since the trailer for "Bright star". They do not infect with emotion, they do not become infected with emotion, but at the same time emotion arises, as if separately from everything and everyone. There are skaters who are like the embodiment of music on ice, there are those who have an incredible energy exchange with the audience, there are those who glide - like they fly, there were even dance pictures. But here is something different. As if you see not even the music, but the spirit that lives in it, your associations with it. It’s like you play something in your head and fall in love with it. It's just that it's still unclear how this is done, because. it's not about the productions, and not about them, and not even in combination (at least in my eyes, all three options, as mentioned above, had an experience of failure), this is some kind of elusive phenomenon. And (not that the magic needed to be divided into atoms, but) from the "earthly" I observe the following: they have a lot of synchronism (in their hands as well), and synchronous-synchronous, atypical for most of today's ice dances; the already mentioned manner of a partner hugging a partner is not the same as everyone else; the texture, of course, is also in their favor. And they don’t skate for the public, but vice versa - as if no one is watching. And this feature gives a sense of intimacy and revelation. And still, all that has been said does not explain what is happening :)
Frankly, I wanted to write a beautiful post-argument, but it turned out the way it was in my head: chaotic and fragmentary.

Of the free dances, I have only seen two so far: the Papadakis and the Shibutani. Moreover, the second, even after the first, still managed to move me to tears, albeit without such a hypnotic effect as the first.

I watched the boys in replay, but almost completely: in the first two warm-ups I watched Ivan Pavlov (well, simply because the first one was, and right behind him was Kolyada), Kolyada itself, Vasilevs and Yorik, and then I watched everyone. Now I'm ready to repeat Stepov's tweet from the European Championship: "LOOOVED Kolyada!" =) And I really, really like Denis. And Yorick looked suspiciously like Rippon. Well, what can I say about the boys... A couple of "déjà vu" like Michal and Kovtun, about whom it is possible to repeat what has been said for the twentieth time. The usual "I'll go to the kitchen, I'll go" on Aaron. An awesomeness from Nam Nguyen, whom I simply did not recognize: is this the brilliant boy from "Sinnerman" whom I was delighted with last season ?! What kind of jumps, he barely crawls on the ice at all ((And past the arbitrary in the end. But at least it’s logical here. And the fact that Han Yang with a super program is in the same place is unfair, IMHO (not from the side of the judges, but in principle). Let him be in last place, but he should have hit. Denis is very sorry, the injury, the season is completely disastrous. And what the hell did I see in the news feed that Yuzuru thinks that Denis ran into him on purpose during the warm-up?!? Who is completely crazy there: Yuzuru or the journalists? As for Yuzuru, the champion of the whole season, absolute, no questions, only a standing ovation. But for some reason, his Chopin did not impress me this time so WOW. To be honest, and KP Xavi, which everyone praises very much, leaves me indifferent too, and not for the first time already. But Patrick impressed 8) As if every time I get more and more pleasure from his skating, stunned. Who else? Oh, Shoma. It seems to me that he is like and Zhenya Medvedeva, was somehow energized and focused, so the impression was again weaker than from earlier them performances of the season. And still cool! Misha Ge - past me in principle, in any form. I am surprised and happy for Vanya Rigini. Thanks to Boyan Jin, of course, for the quad challenge, but otherwise, keep growing and growing, although much better than before. But in general, the competition as a competition is very interesting to watch, I even think about watching the PP live.

I watched the girls from the penultimate warm-up. Mao is awesome, Ashley is the bomb! And exactly on the strongest ones, my Internet went off and it didn’t even occur to me to turn on the TV, I was so weaned from it ((So from the last warm-up I’ve only watched three of our girls and still don’t know what Gracie gave out there ( I peeped at the table with the results, of course, and got very excited from the sudden alignment).

P.S. I was so carried away by writing that I missed Alena a long time ago))

Junior World Championship figure skating in Sofia will be considered one of the historical events in this sport. It is now becoming the norm for girls to perform quadruple jumps, which previously only men were capable of. And the first to reach a new level of figure skating was the Russian woman Alexandra Trusova.

Strictly speaking, women's quadruple jumps have become the secret weapon of individual athletes before. So, the Frenchwoman Suria Bonaly was the first to try to perform jumps with four turns, but officially none was counted. A breakthrough was made by the Japanese Miki Ando in 2002, but new super-complex elements did not come into fashion: the competition was not yet so high as to take risks for no reason.

Trusova set a new trend in this season. She first attempted a quadruple salchow in the Junior Grand Prix final but missed it and fell. The same thing happened at the Russian Championship among girls. But the student of Eteri Tutberidze did not give up and in the final of the Russian Cup, which took place simultaneously with the Olympics, she not only made a salchow, but also tried to perform a quadruple sheepskin coat. The 13-year-old athlete went to Sofia with the intention of completing what she had begun and showing both jumps in a free program.

Trusova coped with her task. In the free program (in the short program, even junior figure skaters are not allowed to enter quadruple jumps), the Russian woman performed a salchow cleanly, receiving an increase of two points for it. Next, the skater went to the sheepskin coat and landed not too beautifully, but this jump also went to the plus - this was the first time in history when a girl performed a quadruple sheepskin coat in competition. And after all, Trusova amazed the judges not only with this: in the second half of the program she had a cascade of lutz-rittberger, which is Alina Zagitova's hallmark, and a flip-toe loop.

The Olympic champion has now been stripped of all her world records in junior skating. AT short box office Trusova bypassed her friend in the training group a long time ago, and now she has added 15 points to last year's achievement by Zagitova in the free program and 17 to the total score. Trusova won the junior world championship with a score of 225.52 points - with such numbers she would have claimed medals at the Pyeongchang Olympics, since there would not be such strict restrictions on the number of jumps that juniors have. True, Trusova will not be able to perform at an adult level for a long time. She will reach the required age for this only by the 2020 European Championships.

Second place after Trusova in Sofia was taken by Alena Kostornaya. While everyone is discussing the rivalry between Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova, these two juniors have long been fighting each other both inside and outside the Tutberidze group. Kostornaya does not perform quadruple jumps, but she shows everything she can in the second half of the programs. Her most difficult element is the flip-toe loop cascade, for which she receives even higher marks than Trusova.

Another Russian athlete Stanislava Konstantinova gained fame during the last adult championship of Russia. Then she became the third in the free program and the fourth according to the results of two rentals. In Sofia, the 17-year-old St. Petersburg woman performed below her abilities and also remained a step away from the podium.

Men

The phenomenon of Eteri Tutberidze applies not only to girls. She trained and continues to train men too, but almost no one has achieved serious success under her leadership. The first was Alexey Erokhov. This season, he immediately established himself as one of the best juniors thanks to two victories at the Grand Prix stages. It was not possible to confirm the status at the final tournament due to an injury, but the 18-year-old Muscovite recovered by the world championship in Sofia.

Erokhov includes in his free program three quadruple jump: first a sheepskin coat in a cascade and a salchow, and then a solo sheepskin coat in the second half. At the World Championships, the whole plan could not be fulfilled, the judges counted only the cascade. But the decent performance of all other jumps was enough to become the first Russian figure skater in 16 years to win gold.

True, we must remember that shortly before the free program, the main favorite of the tournament, Alexei Krasnozhon, representing the United States, withdrew. Erokhov will be able to compete with him only when he fully learns the quad loop and flip, which he already does in training. The Russian scored 231.52 points in Sofia - this is still not enough for the junior level. A year ago, Dmitry Aliev, a participant in the Pyeongchang Olympics, won silver with a score of 247.31 points.

The second place in Sofia was taken by another Russian Artur Danielyan. In his performance, one can note a rare and quite valuable cascade of triple axel - rittberger - triple salchow. Danielyan does not perform quadruple jumps yet, but at the age of 14 this is quite acceptable. Already, he managed to get around the third Italian Matteo Rizzo, who has experience playing at the last Olympic Games.

Couples and dancing

In the world of figure skating, the results of juniors and juniors have a certain meaning: the transition to the adult level is usually not long in coming, and many current stars made a name for themselves at a very young age. With pair skating and ice dancing, everything is somewhat more complicated. Very rarely, representatives of these two disciplines not only show results commensurate with juniors, but generally remain together at a new stage in their sports career.

Nevertheless, the success of Russian figure skaters is also worth noting. For the first time since 1986, representatives of one country took the entire podium in the competition of sports couples. The champions were Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin, who can distinguish a triple twist of the quad level and support for the level of adult skating.

The second place was taken by Polina Kostyukovich and Dmitry Yalin, who have a quadruple twist and a cascade of triple salchow - rittberger - triple salchow. True, a couple from St. Petersburg made a lot of mistakes and barely snatched silver from Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Galyamov - two Russian duets shared only 0.75 points.

Gold in ice dancing also went to Russia, which made it possible to repeat the absolute record of 1996, when all the medals of the highest standard went to Russian figure skaters. The best among the dancers this year were Anastasia Skoptsova and Kirill Alyoshin, who earlier this season won the Junior Grand Prix final, and in 2016 became the winners of the Youth Olympics in the team tournament. Bronze in Sofia was won by Arina Ushakova and Maxim Nekrasov.

At the completed World Figure Skating Championships in Boston, the level of competition was insane. Only in ice dancing, the Frenchmen Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron, who took the lead after the first day, managed to win gold. All the talk about the fact that their short dance is not outstanding this season somehow subsided by itself. For the free program, the now two-time world champions received such points that the question involuntarily arises: how do you need to skate in order to improve them?

Jealousy inside

Of course, outstanding coaches and choreographers are currently working in dance, far from having exhausted their creative potential. The only pity is that Russian duets are far from being in the first positions in numerous groups. No matter what Marina Zueva or Igor Shpilband say about the fact that all students are given the same attention, and the result determines the rental at specific competitions, there is a gradation. As well as jealousy, which skaters, as well-bred people, try not to show to fans and journalists.

I wonder how the growing coaching duo Marie-France Dubreuil - Patrice Lauzon will deal with this problem? While in their group, working in Montreal, the French were the undisputed leaders, but in the new season, Vancouver Olympic champions and Sochi silver medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will start training there. Although coaches in Canada or the United States are not so dependent on federations, skaters from the Maple Leaf Country will clearly count on priority from their compatriots.

Some did not have time, others "overripe"

The problem of a large group is also invisibly present at the Moscow skating rink, where Nina Moser, who has brought together all the best sports couples in Russia, works under her wing. This season, as her ill-wishers constantly hinted, Moser, who came out on top in preparation for the Olympics in Sochi, tried to “breed” her main forces. Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Maxaim Trankov missed the final of the Grand Prix series, Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov missed the Russian and European championships. Yes, the skaters had injuries, but there was no internal competition.

The Moser group was preparing for Boston in full force and very seriously. Unlike our girls, the greenhouses held an acclimatization camp in America. Only Moser failed to bring our leading duets to the peak of their form for the main start. There was not enough time for Stolbova and Klimov to recruit her, and Trankov and Volosozhar (especially his partner) did not feel much motivation. Hence the mistake, which is simply inexplicable for two-time Olympic champions, when performing support in a free program. For this element, Tatyana and Maxim received a steering wheel and as a result, in a free program for technique, they had the 15th total points out of 16 participants. Hence the final sixth place.

The quieter you go, the further you'll get?

Similar metamorphoses happened not only with our skaters. After the short program, they hastened to announce the new world champion in men, Yuzuru Hanyu. Gap from the nearest pursuer of more than 12 points, combined with authority Olympic champion were supposed to guarantee the Japanese victory. Yes, only for the second year in a row, Yuzuru gives a chance to the Spaniard Javier Fernandez, who again took advantage of it. As Brian Orser, who trains the undisputed leaders of men's figure skating this season, assures, there is no gradation by numbers in his group either.

Perhaps not, but there is an unbridled pursuit of complexity. Without five quadruple jumps in two programs today, the Canadian coach will not bring his guys to the World Championships. After all, the Chinese Boyan Jing, who became the bronze medalist for the first time, already has six of them in his arsenal! Although there is another way. St. Petersburg debutant Mikhail Kolyada included one quadruple each in the short and free program- and immediately took fourth place. By the next season, he promises to master one more. And only if he masters it, will he include it in his programs.

This is not roulette, which Maxim Kovtun has been playing for the second season now. Although the three-time champion of Russia himself claims that he succeeds in training, but at competitions he “gets stiff”. No, no psychologist will help in such a situation. You just need to have the character that our skaters have.

Thanks competition

In the short program, Evgenia Medvedeva was unable to complete the planned cascade, but she immediately orientated herself and “attached” the triple sheepskin coat to another triple jump in the second part of the program. Elena Radionova did the same at the Grand Prix finals. Well, Anna Pogorilaya, the nominal third number of the national team, it was in Boston that she gave unmistakable performances of two programs, which brought her bronze.

Medvedeva took her own in the free program, for which she received a record amount of points. Only the hypothetical Gold-Wagner could beat her. Yes, only Gracie flawlessly skated only a short one, and Ashley skated a free one. Given the huge competition in the Russian women's team (we could send two or even three competitive teams to the World Cup), even the problem of transitional age, with which Radionova suffered all season, does not cause much concern.

Medvedeva is a girl, of course, unique. Even Aleksey Mishin, looking at the jumping qualities of his skaters' rivals through a magnifying glass, admitted that she has unique abilities. Although next year, in order to defend the title won in Boston, it will be most difficult for her at the Russian Championship in Chelyabinsk. She, too, has reached her limit. To improve the amount of points scored at the 2016 World Cup, you need to either jump triple axel without errors, or quadruple jump. Otherwise, the girls from the next generation will get ahead, for whom, due to their age and technically, it is easier to jump, and thoughts that interfere with the same Kovtun still do not sit in their heads.

World Cup 2016 results

Men. 1. Fernandez (Spain) - 314.93; 2. Hanyu (Japan) - 295.17; 3. Boyan Jin (China) - 270.99; 4. Kolyada - 267.97 ... 18. Kovtun (both - Russia) - 210.14. Women. 1. Medvedev (Russia) - 223.86; 2. Wagner (USA) - 215.39; 3. Pogorilaya - 213.69 ... 6. Radionova (both - Russia) - 209.81.

Sports couples. 1. Dugamel / Radford (Canada) - 231.99; 2. Sui Wenjin / Han Kon (China) - 224.47; 3. Savchenko / Masso (Germany) - 216.17; 4. Stolbova / Klimov - 214.48; 5. Tarasova / Morozov - 206.27; 6. Volosozhar / Trankov (all couples - Russia) - 205.81.

All figure skating fans love to watch their favorite skaters perform. Of particular interest is the gathering of world-class figure skaters at the annual world championships. America in the spring the championship will take place world figure skating 2016.

Less than a year is left before one of the significant battles of athletes in this sport. The city of Boston is honored to host the most famous figure skaters. spring days from March 28 to April 3 will be able to give fans of figure skating a real extravaganza of beauty, the intensity of a stubborn struggle and the joy of stunning victories.

4 disciplines will be included in the fight for medals - women's and men's single skating, sports couples and ice dancing.

Competitions in all disciplines will be organized and held at the TD Garden stadium in the American city of Boston. This sports arena is also called Boston Garden or simply Garden. The International Skating Union (ISU) made this choice not by chance.

Boston's huge sports array serves as a venue for NHL hockey battles, NBA basketball games, as well as competitions in gymnastics, boxing and organizing various shows.

Skaters with world-famous names have already competed at this rink, in the distant 2001.

Boston Garden can host up to eighteen thousand spectators from all over the world at the same time in its stands.

Time spending

The timing of the championship is logically justified. The end of March and the beginning of April is the period of peak form for many athletes, this is the time when the skaters will be able to show the highest results. Long-term pre-training, completed championships of the countries participating in the competition will help to identify and send the strongest athletes of this sport to the World Championships.

Ticket prices start at $250 for balconies and go up to $1300 for VIP seats.

Spring is the time for the last start of the season, as a result of all the achievements of the skaters over the past year. The 2016 World Figure Skating Championships is included in the season schedule of all world-class competitive events.

Participant Selection Criteria

The age limit for figure skaters who wish to take part in the World Championships is limited. Participants must not be younger than the next July 1, 2000, i.e. The youngest skater must not be under the age of 15. All competing athletes will represent countries that are necessarily part of the ISU. Each country can apply for participation in any discipline from one to three people. The minimum number - one - for each type of skiing is the default.

Members	Men	Women	Couples	Dancing
3
2	Kazakhstan Uzbekistan France	South Korea	Italy	Italy
Countries not listed in the table have one participant

In order to put up more representatives for the World Championship, one more indicator must be present - the prospective participants must receive a minimum mark for technique at international level competitions before the World Championship. For men, this is 20 points in the short program and 35 in the free program, for women, respectively, 15 and 25, in pair skating you need to score 17 and 30, for dancing these figures are 17 and 27.

All applications for participation in the World Championship in 2016 are formed according to the final results of the competitions of the same rank in 2015. The association of each country has the right to select candidates according to its own criteria. Very often, a team of skaters is formed on the basis of the results of the previous world competition, the European Championship. If the athletes did not finish in the previous year in the first 18 places in singles competitions, in ice dancing - 15, and in sports couples - 12, then they will have to qualify for selection for the world championship.

It should be noted that no country has received the maximum number of athletes in each discipline. The Americans are closest to Russia in terms of the number of entries, but they cannot enter three skaters in men's and pair skating.

In 2016, it will be 120 years since the organization of the first world-class competition among figure skaters. The first World Championship was "available" only to male athletes. Since 1902, a single woman, Madge Sayers Cave, has joined the "company" of men.

The famous Ulrich Salchow won this competition, after whom one of the jumps in figure skating was named. Women's competitions among world-class figure skaters began to be organized 4 years later (1906). Two years later (1908), another discipline joined the world championship - the greenhouse competition.

The 1930 World Championships brought together all three types of figure skating for the first time. Dance competition is the last figure skating discipline that has become a permanent fixture in world-class competitions. This happened relatively recently, only in 1952 in the capital of France. Since then, 4 unchanged disciplines have been present in world-class competitions. Since 2009, an innovation has been introduced in figure skating - an unofficial world championship of team competitions has been held.

Representation of Russia

The results of world-class competitions in 2015 for Russian figure skaters will allow us to present the following number of participants in 2016 by type:

• men - 2;
• women - 3;
• couples - 3;
• dancing - 2.

In order for the dancers to be able to represent three participants, in the 2015 World Championships it was necessary to try and get two couples in the sum of places no more than 13, but our athletes “went through”, taking the seventh and eighth places. Thus, the sum of the places was 15, which means a negative verdict for the third dance couple at the 2016 World Championships.

Men, unfortunately, also failed to provide our country with the maximum quota. Maxim Kovtun and Sergey Voronov did not justify hopes for a possible representation of three male figure skaters at the next world championship, which is very sad.

The competition of very strong representatives of figure skating from other countries of the world did not allow them to score the necessary points, and therefore, to give a ticket to three male single skaters at the 2016 World Championships. The famous figure skater Evgeni Plushenko speaks about his participation in the 2016 World Championships. Already a three-time champion in these competitions, he wants to compete for victory once again with talented and not so experienced single skaters.

Eugene is in excellent sports shape and is set up in a fighting way. Men's figure skating has been deprived of gold medals for 10 years. Last time the Russian figure skater who climbed the first step of the podium was just Evgeny. This was in 2004.

After the triumphant victory of this Russian, not one of the male single skaters from Russia managed to win the world championship. In any case, he will cheer for all our skaters in all other disciplines and hope that the forces will not let our athletes down and luck will be on their side.

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