Our golden masks

At the World Cup in figure skating in Sweden, our team slides perfectly. For the first time, the whole pedestal was occupied by Russian girls

This is probably the most unusual planetary forum in history. Without spectators, without flowers, without soft toys, without the usual hugs in the corner of the “kiss-end-root”, but with daily cords and detailed filling of questionnaires with questions about well-being. Judges in gloves and masks resemble doctors dressed in covid "fashion" journalists and technical workers - overseers. And the skaters living in the “bubble”, moving to the place of the main action along specially laid routes with sanitizers in all pockets and in the ringing silence that take off the vaults of a huge arena, look like the heroes of the film “Hunger Games”. But that the German is death, Russian is good. Our masters and craftswomen who do not have the right to speak under a tricolor flag, and they cope with a quarantine life, and rivals from all over the world tease beautifully.

I must say that the Covid-19 hit the ice virtuoso especially strongly. And the point is not even that many skaters were ill with a Chinese infection, but that the cowardly skate federation canceled not only last year's world championship in Montreal and all international competitions, including the Grand Prix Final, but even the January continental championship, having deprived of competitive practice athletes and the opportunity to earn a daily bread. The March tournament in Stockholm, where they first looked at the virus through laughter, and then through tears, was also in danger of cancellation for a long time. However, another slippery holidays on the eve of the Olympic Games in Beijing could capitalize the entire like -toe fraternal, and the ISU reputation from the next Locdown would have fallen below zero. Therefore, the Union of skaters decided to take a chance and still hold the championship, but with unprecedented security measures. In the multi -page rules, they even prescribed how to sneeze correctly, and in which bag to wear a mask.

Moreover, the athlete himself was obliged to wipe all objects (shops, hangers, mats, rugs and simulators) in the locker rooms and warm -up areas, to which he touched, and the coaches did not allow these sectors at all. It was also forbidden to touch the side of the arena with my hands, and all your things before the performance had to be put in special baskets. And for any violation of camp orders, the organizers promised to immediately disqualify and send it to their homeland. True, with the "on -board" veto and other wild restrictions, the Swedish reinsurers clearly extended the stick. This became obvious already on the first day of the competition, when in a short program, women after execution of the jump broke the Achilles tendon Frenchwoman Mate. According to the rules, no one could help her on her ice. The poor girl, losing consciousness from pain, literally crawled to the gate for two minutes, where she was laid on a gurney.

Unfortunately, I checked the ice and Alexander Trusov three times. And the matter is by no means the absence of proper experience. Just after the transition from Eteri Tutberidze to Evgeny Plushenko, the skater became interested in Instagram and other nonsense distracting from training and lost confidence and former ease. And let the “Russian missile” won an arbitrary half and snapped from 12th place to the pedestal, its programs, consisting, in fact, of the Jumps, have not been amazing for a long time. Before the tournament, Trusova complained that you can’t take my favorite dog with you to Stockholm. And, as fans were caught in caustically, if instead of the odious sensei, who did not part in training with the camera and shooting pathos rollers, there was a home pet next to it, it would definitely not be worse. However, the bronze Sasha, who earned a portion of powerful criticism from Tatyana Tarasova for her absurd jumping creativity, told reporters that she would leave the “Angels of Plushenko” and return to Sambo-70, where they plow from dawn to sunset, she is not going to ...

But Lisa Tuktamysheva continues to surprise with the plus sign. The pupil of Professor Mishin rides longer than many current rivals live in the world. Since 2015, when she, having survived a bunch of injuries, conquered all the main tournaments, she is retired. But the mysterious rock and roller, who still fought with Carolina Costner, seemed to deceive the time and laws of physics and smoothly fit into the era of quadruple and fantastic stages. Seeing her Scandinavian points (220.46), the Empress, who left the Trusov and dangerous Japanese women with the Americans behind the horizon. And she would be gold, not silver, if not for the 16-year-old "crystal" prima.

You can blame Tutberidze as much as you like and her team is that they mercilessly squeeze all the juices out of the kids, but the result, as they say, on the scoreboard. The last five years, with the exception of one season, the pets of Eteri Georgievna rose to the highest steps of the coolest pedestals. So on Friday evening, a fragment of concert No. 1 of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at Ericksson Globa Arena (the anthem of Mikhalkov-Aleksandrov, as you remember, is banned) sounded in honor of Anna Shcherbakova’s miniature modest, who made his debut, like Trusova, at the adult world forum. The three -time champion of the country, which foreign envious people call painful and sad,

She gave out two heroic rentals, took the crown from Alina Zagitova, who owned the title of 730 days due to the pandemic, and made the female podium purely Russian, which never happened in 115 (!) years.

But the main sensation was created, in my opinion, the students of Tamara by Moskvina. Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, who had never sniffed gunpowder of large ice battles and grabbed a ticket to Sweden at the final selection, loudly announced themselves before the start, quite boldly accusing the first channel that he removed the short aircraft program from the transmission of the match of the weak national team of Russia in football. The entire “spotted” public, led by Vasily Utkin, took up arms against the guys. However, while Dziuba and Sajorobyshchi suffered with the Maltese, Nastya and Sasha elegantly proved the mistake of television, demonstrating not children's skating. However, even after their small performance, experts argued that newcomers would not get the famous Chinese and other European leaders. But all the favorite (including our couples-Boykova-Kozlovsky and Tarasov-Morozov), their arbitrary march-bars filled their arbitrary marks, and the ideal number for Bohemian Ropsodia and the football hymn of the legendary group “Quin” turned the daredevils from St. Petersburg into the kings of the planet, which, according to the rules, gave themselves precious yellow rounds.

It is noteworthy that Sasha Boykova, who had difficulty reaching with Dmitry Kozlovsky to bronze, was so upset by such a result that after setting the assessment, Tamara threw a jealous phrase with Moskvina: “Congratulations, now you have world champions.” The outstanding coach did not develop an unpleasant topic, but the Pioneer Triumph Mishina and Gallamov, who earned 90 thousand dollars of prize and received a solemn telegram from Vladimir Putin, commented on humor:

“To take the composition of We Are the Champions for the debutants is a frank impudence. But I’m 80 years old, so I decided to shoulder a little bit. ”

By the way, the last time our couple won the world championship back in 2013.