Kamila Valieva the 15-year-old makes history by doing the quadruple jump.
In the team competition, where the Russian Olympic Committee had already clinched the gold medal ahead of the United States and Japan, he showed Salkhov four brilliant times at the start of his freestyle.
As someone who has set records almost every time since starting as a senior less than six months ago, it’s no surprise he’s landed on the second quadrant later in practice.
Quad jumps – the four rotations of the body in the air – are still rare in women’s figure skating, although Valieva has done them regularly in competitions this season.
Though she later crashed on her third quad attempt, Monday’s performance ended 30 points clear of runner-up Kaori Sakamoto and took the stage at the Olympics the day after being announced with a short program she missed. just a little bit his world record.
Record from day one
You only get 231,000 Instagram followers at 15 if you do something special.
The high-scoring quads, as well as the grace and elegance in their signature tricks, have occasionally broken world records since she started her senior year.
Oh, and the start of the Finland CS Cup in October … also a world record.
She was too young to compete at last year’s World Cup, but at last month’s European Championships she was the first woman to score more than 90 points on the shortlist, setting a world record of 90.45 on the way to the title.
In her short program, she freestyles in memory of her grandmother, who died in 2019, and Russian composer Kirill Richter is destined for In Memoriam. He said that the emotions she evokes about her give her the reason why skates give her a lot of energy to exercise.
Meanwhile, the lengthy program, which includes all quads, is set for Ravel’s Bolero, a near-Olympic skating classic (if you’re British anyway) after Torvill & Dean’s 1984 ice dance gold.
Olympic champion and BBC commentator Robin Cousins says “the honesty she plays with is so beautiful.”
“Production is a joy to do, it’s the production, the expansion. Buoyancy in the air is in all her jumps. The body does not swing at all.
“I don’t know if they have this sensitivity to performance, aside from technical ability, at this honest and credible age, it’s unusual.”
Production line of Russian skates
Valieva is the youngest of a series of recent young Russian champions.
Adelina Sotnikova (then 17) was also the last two Olympic champions and Alina Zagitova (then 15) was also the 2018 silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva (18) from the country.
And at last month’s European Championships, the Russians were a huge success when Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova (both under 17) joined Valieva on the podium.
These three, trained by the same coach in Eteri Tutberidze, should do the same in Beijing in the women’s competition.
“When you look at her, you completely forget about her age. What you appreciate is the complexity of their performance, “Russian ice dancer Nikita Katsalapov told a press conference.
And what about Valeva in particular?
“She gets better with every performance,” she replied.
And that usually means another record in her case.
