The World Figure Skating Championships concluded on Saturday in Saitama, Japan. His bright spot was the crazy jump of Russian-American Ilya Malinin at the world championships, a clean quad axle that no one had done before him. But the unparalleled success did not allow Malinin to rise to the highest step of the podium, and in general, it is thought that the current judging system, which has been operating in figure skating for 20 years, does not bring this sport one iota. the triumph of objectivity, but on the contrary, often becomes the instrument of violence.

The ice dancing competition at the World Championships suddenly reminded me of the local season of Russia, although there were no prerequisites for it. Russian figure skaters have been suspended from participating in the World Championships, but it’s unlikely that any of our currently standing dance couples will be competing to even make it to the top six.

Remind me indirectly. Americans Madison Chalk and Evan Bates, who became world champions, fell into the free program. Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Yegor Bazin, currently the strongest Russian dance duet with Falls, won the entire first half of the season. Brutal stats: In the fall and early winter, there was no tournament where these skaters were skating both programs standing on their feet.

At the Russian championship in Krasnoyarsk, Khudaiberdiyeva and Bazin, who received some more negative material from the media, had an informal meeting with journalists after the last press conference. Then they agreed not to publish its content, but the issue was already exposed and it’s almost philosophical – is it the fault of skaters living within the current judicial system, where they sometimes become victims and sometimes beneficiaries? Yes, Khudaiberdiyeva and Bazin made mistakes in the tournaments, but really, if they are stronger in all elements and the artistic part, and only one point is deducted for the fall, how can this affect the final result?

So why do the victories of the fallen dancers evoke such a strong sense of dissonance? You can try to formulate the fact that ice dancing is considered the closest figure skating discipline to art. If single skaters fall, this is not to be taken lightly, it is considered a completely unlikely event. They do go for the elements that are really hard to accomplish, though. It is not in vain that the same quadruple jumps are chosen in a separate category called “ultra-si”. The same is true for pair skating – of course parallel quads are still a long way off (although this is theoretically possible), but complex triples are a big risk.

Dance, in general, is a manifestation of mastery in choreography. But how many declines have you seen in ballet or the performances of the Moiseev Ensemble? They probably will, but this event is extremely unfortunate from the category of “anything happens”. And it will certainly spoil the artistic impression a lot. Same with ice dancing. A work of art that should be the program in this discipline ceases to be the only one if the skater for no reason becomes the fifth spot on the ice.

Perhaps it is worth considering the issue of harsher penalties for falling while dancing. It will be possible to get not one point, but three points, for example. Especially when the drop is not on the element. Or, unchecking the “skid skill” component is real, not symbolic. But one has to put up with the fact that although “deadakhens” are the same in all types of figure skating, a dance duet can suddenly become both the champion of Russia and the world.

The current rating system in figure skating, which has recently ceased to be called “new”, has been in operation for 20 years. But the flaw still shows itself. And in men’s singles skating, perhaps most obviously right now. American figure skater Ilya Malinin performs a unique four-and-a-half-turn axel jump, but only gets 12.5 base points for it. Just one point more than the quad lutz brought in. A leap that the girls have already mastered.

The injustice isn’t just that Malinin is the only person in the world like that. In public training, the quad axle, although underestimated, was also performed by Japanese two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu. Former champion of Russia Artur Dmitriev Jr. He tried to bypass it. The reason the four and a half turn axle is unique is that it is closest to the limit of human capabilities available. Any scientific jumping coach will tell you that the only way to do a quad Axel is to feel the nearly impossible combination of forward speed on ice and angular rotation speed in a jump. Otherwise, there will be no exit from the jump.

However, it turned out that Malinin, who showed his special skill all season long, did not actually make any profit from it. They give 8 points at the base for a clean triple axle, which has long become an ordinary jump, and with standard allowances you can get 10-11. In a free program in Saitama, Ilya earned 12.86 points for an error-free quad axle. This is, roughly speaking, a ridiculous subject for chickens, given the incredible concentration and highest skill required to practice this element.

In addition to the quadruple axel, the American at this World Championship tried to do five more quad jumps in a free program. Two came out clean – a sheepskin coat and salchow. Turn in a step, solo lutz, and lutz – with spots of varying severity. Still, Malinin got the highest technical score among all the participants. But in terms of the points of the components – these are also the artistic side of skating – he lost to his main rivals – the Japanese Shoma Uno, who took the second consecutive gold medal at the World Championships, the silver medal of the Korean Cha. Chung Hwan and a dozen other skaters eventually left with the bronze medal. Presumably Malinin didn’t really jump for gold in Saitama. But, sure, it’s a strange story: The judiciary apparently punishes the skater for focusing on jumping – the essence and salt of men’s single skating, but also forgiving the biggest mistakes they shouldn’t have made at dances. to be nothing

Let me remind you, for four days we have been calculating what places Russian skaters would have taken if they had not been suspended for political reasons. We take, for example, their performance in the Final of the Russian Grand Prix, the closest local start in terms of dates. So, judging from the quality of the rentals, then St. Petersburg, Peter Gumennik can take fourth or fifth place at the World Championships. In the Russian Grand Prix Final, Mark Kondratyuk, who did not perform very well in the free program, would be around seventh and Alexander Samarin would be in the top ten. So the Russians, if they participated in the World Championship, had to get six medals from it – two gold, silver and bronze, as Alexandra Boykova / Dmitry Kozlovsky, Anastasia Mishina / Alexander Gallyamov, Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov, Kamila Valieva, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Sofia Muravyova, March at the beginning of St. They would take the podium in doubles and singles figure skating with the roller skates they showed in St. Petersburg.

But these are all virtual guesses. In reality – and it was clear all these four days – at the World Championships a lot of people who were in one way or another connected with Russia, the judges pressed with all their might. We have already mentioned how the Russian Maria Pavlova and Alexei Svyatchenko, representing Hungary, drowned in pairs skating. There were other examples as well. For the purest free program, for Vladimir Litvintsev, a native of Ukhta who plays for Azerbaijan but trains with Victoria Butsaeva (Volchkova) in Moscow, the judges cut at least 7-8 points compared to other skaters who performed the same. level. Under the leadership of Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov, Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaydorov, who served in Sochi, stole 12 points. Both skaters should be in the top ten and landed by a large margin, but outside of it. Yes, even Italian Daniel Grassl, who came to the World Championships under the leadership of Eteri Tutberidze, put all the shortcomings they could find into the protocol and demoted him to 12th place despite making the two hardest quads – lutz and rittberger.

Even after last year’s World Championships, Russian experts who visited him in jackets from other teams said: Many are glad of our absence, because others finally have the opportunity to take back the medals that we have won all these years. However, our country has long been a supplier of athletes to the whole world, and our coaches come from the USA, Canada and Europe for consultation and permanent training. Figure skating is a sport in which Russia cannot be excluded.

Those who can’t handle it get angry. “Why were Russian athletes excluded from the World Cup, but no coach?” – American Ashley Wagner asks herself on Twitter, whose main achievements, by the way, achieved under the guidance of the representative of the Russian coaching school Rafael Harutyunyan. And the judges repeat it by working quietly and punishing those who cannot be punished in other ways with points.

All this suggests that Russian skaters need to be well prepared for our return to the international arena, which will certainly take place despite the reluctance. We will definitely not encounter flowers in international tournaments. They prefer to be eaten. And in response, we must fly like in a song.