For the first time in the history of the World Figure Skating Championships, Russian figure skaters took the entire prize-winning podium in single skating at the World Championships in Stockholm. The gold medal was won by Anna Shcherbakova, who will turn 17 on March 28. Skating to ‘Home of the Dark Butterflies’ and ‘Beethoven’s Five Secrets’, she scored a total of 233.17 points even after falling in the quadruple flip. Previously, Russian athletes managed to do this only in pairs competition in1969 and 1988.
The second place was taken by 24-year-old Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (220.46), who performed two triple Axel in a free program, but fell during a triple flip. The third was Alexandra Trusova (217.20), who was 12th after the short program, and showed the best performance in the free program (152.38). In the course of the rental, the 16-year-old athlete performed five quadruple jumps, falling from Salchow and Lutz.
For Shcherbakova and Trusova, the World Championship in Sweden was their debut at the adult level. Tuktamysheva previously participated in the 2015 World Championships and won gold. Thanks to their win, the athletes have set a record achievement. The coaches of the tournament are Eteri Tutberidze (Shcherbakova), Alexei Mishin (Tuktamysheva) and Evgeni Plushenko (Trusova).
Due to the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) with regards to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sanctions, the Russian figure skaters performed in Sweden under the name FSR (Figure Skating Federation of Russia) and the flag of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR), not the country. The uniform of the athletes does not include the Russian tricolor and coat of arms. When the Russians win, the theme from the Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is played instead of State Anthem of the Russian Federation. The Russian women managed to maintain the maximum quota for the upcoming Olympic Games and the three winners will represent Russia in Beijing.
Russian figure skaters have so far scored 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. A day earlier, Anastasia Mishina / Alexander Gallyamov won gold among sports couples, and Alexandra Boykova / Dmitry Kozlovsky won bronze.
Karen Chen (USA) remained in fourth place with a solid skate to “Butterfly Lovers“ (208.63 points). The standings shuffled quite a bit. Loena Hendrickx (BEL) moved up from 10th to fifth with a strong performance to “Fever” (208.44 points). Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) slipped from fifth to sixth at 207.80 points. Rika Kihira (JPN) dropped from second to seventh after some errors (205.70 points).