Adelia is in action

Student Eteri Tutberidze takes fifth place after the short program and will compete for the podium

...Almost a week has passed since the end of the men's figure skating tournament, and the scandalous noise does not subside. If immediately after the decisive Olympic trials, Russian fans, dissatisfied with the low ratings of Peter Gumennik, poured out all their anger on the shameless referees, then the extremely angry public switched to officials and other “cold” leaders, who with their statements gave reason to whistle and mock. Thus, the honorary vice-president of the International Skating Union (ISU), Alexander Lakernik, who was also the vice-president of the FFKR for a long time, reacted to Gumennik’s sixth place as follows: “It is difficult to answer the question whether Peter was not given enough points... The crew is looking at their camera, and not at the television camera. There are many components here.

I think the judging turned out to be objective. And to say that the scores could have been higher somewhere is simply unrealistic in this judging system.” 81-year-old Alexander Rafailovich was immediately dubbed a lackey: they say, with such a spineless representative in the highest echelons of figure skating power, there is no need for enemies. The head coach of the national team, 86-year-old Elena Tchaikovskaya, also got it, and she also took a very politically correct position: “The judges haven’t seen Gumennik for four years, haven’t heard about him, haven’t worked with him. Therefore, what happened was what happened. The referees have nothing to do with it. They just didn't know what to do with him." “What to do with such a boss?!” - fans asked on their forums, trying in vain to find justice.

Peter himself, by the way, took the situation with him quite calmly:

“I noticed that at international competitions the referees evaluate not only a specific performance, but also all previous ones, your rating, background... This doesn’t seem right to me, but I was ready for it.” But the fans, I repeat, were not ready for such a turn.

Their feelings, of course, are understandable and natural. However, I will not say in defense of the elders at all: it is not forbidden to verbally spank the scoundrels behind the monitors, but what will this give and what will it affect? It won't give anything! The results have been approved and no one will revise them. But by angering the Areopagus ISU, even with some correct criticism, you can lose a lot...

Let's talk honestly. Life does not end at the Milan Games alone. And in order to fully return to the European, world and Olympic arenas, it is now hardly worth it to be particularly fussy and indignant openly and directly with the refereeing. This is the first point. And secondly, we must not forget that there is also Adelia Petrosyan, who, like Gumennik, had to convince not only her opponents, but also the referees of her strength. So why anger the servants of the skating Themis?

Moreover, the situation for student Eteri Tutberidze, in my opinion, is many times more complicated than that of Peter. It’s more complicated in the sense that, by and large, they didn’t expect a medal from Gumennik, but they simply demanded one from Adelia. She, despite all her “neutrality,” is one of the favorites, while Peter was an unknown dark horse. In addition, Gumennik (something tells me) will still have an Olympics in his career, but Petrosyan, considering how long Eteri Georgievna’s charges usually live on the ice, may not have such a chance. Don't agree? Let's remember. Yulia Lipnitskaya (2014 Olympic champion in the team tournament) actually ended her career a couple of years after the Games in Sochi. Soon after winning Pyeongchang 2018, Alina Zagitova put her skates away, and Evgenia Medvedeva, who was behind her, actually left the stage. After Beijing 2022, gold Anna Shcherbakova and silver Alexandra Trusova stopped competing. The age of the figure skaters from Khrustalny is short. None of them had, excuse me, two Olympic cycles... And Elena Buyanova’s student Adelina Sotnikova, having won the personal tournament in Sochi, decided not to tempt fate anymore...

In general, 18-year-old Adelia should have caught luck by the tail here and now, without postponing her championship dreams for later. And she, having listened to the last instructions from choreographer Daniil Gleikhengauz (Eteri Tutberidze, after the scandal with Kamila Valieva, has no right to be near her during the competition), fluttered onto the Apennine ice with such a charming smile that it immediately became clear: the Muscovite is ready to show herself. And she showed it. Bright and moderately bold. Double Axel, triple Lutz, triple flip-triple toe loop cascade, which were impossible to find fault with. As with other pure non-jumping elements performed at the fourth level. The judges did not skimp, giving a quite decent 72.89 points. But no less than the skater, she was amazed by the fans who met and saw off Petrosyan as if she were the owner of Milano Ice Park. And she, who competed second without a rating, could relax a little and wait for the skates of her main competitors.

...As the night approached, the Japanese and American women demonstrated their short numbers. And all three representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun (Ami Nakai, Kaori Sakamoto and Monet Chiba) were ahead of Adelia. Like the stars and stripes of the 2025 world champion Alice Liu. However, the gap is small: the Russian woman is less than four points behind third place, and 5.82 points behind the leader.

And let's just keep quiet until Thursday evening.

And here’s what Adelia Petrosyan said after the short program: “I feel like everything went calmly. I had great pleasure from the screening, and I hope all the spectators did too. The points are good, that’s about what I asked for when I made a wish: from 72 to 74, it turned out to be approximately in the middle... When I found out that Daniil Markovich Gleikhengauz would be nearby, I was happy. The more people you know around, the more protection you have. He helped and set me up before the performance. I think he was more nervous today than I was. Glad I didn't let him down. We considered the triple axel, but decided not to do it after discussing and weighing everything. Nothing worries me now. These are my first Games, but so far I don’t feel any pressure..."