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Best Russian Lady Skater
Everybody in Russia had been waiting for a skater like Leonova to appear for a very long time. For some reason the Soviet school didn’t provide us with a know-how of producing good female skaters. Of course, geniuses like Slutskaya are born once in a blue moon, but it seems obvious that good skaters shouldn’t be very hard to find. But we’d seen deplorably few good Russian female skaters lately. One skater could possess an excellent stature and sense of music, but lack consistency; another one could impress with her jump technique but be totally unskilled in terms of non-jump elements, let alone any self-presentation ability. Ksenia Doronina, Alena’s ice-mate trained by the same coach, couldn’t retain her position as the leader of Russian ladies team due to a serious illness. Shortly before the start of Nationals 2009 she bade Leonova to win. Still, Alena made so many mistakes that she didn’t even medal. However, her results at the next three events, namely Europeans, Junior Worlds and senior Worlds, became a real present given by Alena not only to her friend, but also to all the fans of Russian figure skating. Nowadays 4th place at Europeans and 7th at Worlds is regarded as a kind of victory in itself, and as for the World Junior title, it was a real break-through for Russian ladies in the context of this period between Olympics. But the most important thing was that during those competitions Alena’s main merits and advantages were clearly shown. She is not only able to compete, but craves for competition and revels in it; she is not only collected and concentrated, but truly tenacious; she comes to the ice not only decidedly ready to make all the jumps clean, but also being happy to meet the audience. Leonova’s ardor quite skillfully compensated for lack of choreographic refinement in her programs, but mere enthusiasm and energy can yield great results, too. There are athletes, after all, who are appreciated not for their capacity of applying an effective set of dance skills, but for something more obvious, say, for strong character and the ability to win regardless of any circumstances. Leonova’s achievements brought her laurels, heavier responsibilities and quite a headache, as well as drew the Federation’s attention to her and allowed her to receive help and advice from Russian national team’s best consultants. As a result, among the factors that are likely to play in her and her coach Alla Piatova’s favor in the Olympic season are the Barynya short program, choreographed by Tatiana Tarasova with loving care, and the Broadway glamour introduced by the now American choreographer Olga Volojinskaya into the free one, Chicago. These programs promise to reveal a new Alena Leonova, and not only to confirm her present status, but also to raise her to a much higher level. So if you have a chance to see Alena perform live, you’d better not miss it. And you will see that ardor is a very hot and catching feeling. Best Junior Lady Skater
Though ISU regards the denomination ‘junior’ as something that has to do with athletes’ age exclusively, not taking into account their competition experience or skills, one tends to associate the term rather with an athlete’s progress and constant work on his or her skills, which is a sine qua non when it comes to competing with the best senior skaters. From the latter point of view, Alena Leonova, who entered only one junior event last season, namely Junior Worlds in Sofia, is undoubtedly the most successful ‘junior’ of the year, because the new leader of the Russian national team was improving her skills and gaining self-reliance before our very eyes. The beginning of the season was a hard time for Alena. She grew quite a bit during the summer, then struggled with injuries and began thoroughly practicing only in September. Her debut at Grand Prix events wasn’t an impressive one: she placed 7th in Beijing and 5th in Moscow. Then she failed to overcome the sense of responsibility at Russian Nationals, where the disastrous free skating (two falls, a singled Axel, a touchdown on Salchow and all the joy frozen by the chilly cold of Kazan) put her only into the fifth place. But the coaches’ council nevertheless selected Leonova for the European team. At first it seemed that the Federation had made a mistake, as she was only 11th after the short program. But the next day she came to the ice with an air of cheerful recklessness about her – she and Alla Piatova were already smiling when they appeared before the audience. Leonova’s free skating was relaxed and bold, and the audience began applauding at the second minute. Her technical score surpassed that of all her famed rivals and she placed 4th. It seemed like there wasn’t much to expect after that. Alena was to enter only senior Worlds, and nobody expected anything special of the only lady from Russia: getting the Olympic spot would have been regarded as a worthy result. But the Federation decided to send Alena to Junior Worlds. She came in third after the short program, and Russian figure skating fans were overcome with agitation: Please, Alena, don’t lose too much in the free skating, we haven’t had a medal for ages! And Alena didn’t lose. She did all the jumps (well, the tiny slip on the first flip and the underrotated loop don’t count, right?) She did almost all the non-jump elements at the needed levels and performed with such emotion that the sparse Bulgarian audience gave her a real ovation. The previous year’s medalists, the awesome contenders Caroline Zhang and Ashley Wagner from the USA stood on the podium on Alena Leonova’s right and left. What must feel an athlete who goes to Worlds just a couple of weeks after he or she had won the World title, though a junior one? Alena behaved like a true woman would: she changed her haircut, had a new dress made and then relaxed. And what was the result? She skated a wonderful short program, and was even better in her free skating; she got her first sevens for the program components; she gave the audience an almost royal nod in the beginning of a step sequence; her score for the free skating was the best among the contenders from Europe. Two Olympic spots for Russian ladies. Six clean performances one after another, all of them including six triple jumps. Seems like Alena knows what she wants. She thoroughly and fruitfully works on her technical skills, improves her non-jump elements. She learns to be the leader and not to be afraid of it. She grows prettier with every day, after all! May she not lose her ardor and resoluteness, and her intellect, the ability to comprehend what she is taught and her coach’s experience must lead her to really big victories. Leonova won in this nomination more than convincingly, by far surpassing last season’s World Junior champion and FSO Award winner Caroline Zhang. Russian national champion Adelina Sotnikova, who, formally speaking, isn’t even a junior yet, is in the third place. Break-through of the Season A girl from nowhere. This label sure is on the tip of one’s tongue when speaking about St. Petersburg’s single skater Alena Leonova. Indeed, just a couple of years ago the pupil of Alla Piatova’s was known only to some keen figure skating fans and journalists specializing in this field. Well, yes, she was a silver medalist of Russian Juniors in 2007. And what of that? She’s just a second-rate skater, not even apt for pair skating, isn’t she? And then the ‘second-rate’ one all of a sudden began to work miracles! She, who came in only 5th at Russian Nationals, but still was included in the European team by the Federation, all but medaled in Helsinki, and then sensationally won the World Junior title. It is worth reminding that it was as long ago as in 2001 that a Russian lady won the event last time (it was Christina Oblasova), and since then Russians were never even close to winning the title. Leonova’s 7th place at senior Worlds should be regarded as a success, too. Alena didn’t only show a more mature skating, but also surpassed such experienced and famous contenders as Sarah Meier, Carolina Kostner and Fumie Suguri, finishing second among Europeans.
It’s hard to believe, but Alena attributes all of her recent achievements to mere luck. Such modesty seems strange these days, when most athletes communicate with mass media following the ‘if you don’t praise yourself then no one will’ principle. Nevertheless, luck may help you to succeed once or twice, but an athlete can be successful during the whole season (the failure at Nationals really seems an accident) only if he or she is in an excellent shape, both physically and psychologically. And what is more… Today’s Leonova is one of a most rare kind of skaters who is able to inflame the audience, even if they support her rivals. It’s unlikely that good fortune accounts for it, too. Samuel Contesti took second place in the poll, Grand Prix Final winner and the USA champion Jeremy Abbott came in third. |
