The Olympic skating season so far: Injuries and Russian women (and more Russian women. And more. . .)

Russians Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Kamila Valieva and Alena Kostornaia (l to r) swept the medals at Skate Canada. Russian women went 1-2 in the other two Grand Prix events so far this season. (Skate Canada photo.)

A baker’s dozen of takeaways halfway through the Grand Prix season – and just under three months from the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics:

1.  The injury list added two big names in the last week: Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, the two-time reigning OIympic champion, and reigning world bronze medalist Alexandra Trusova of Russia, who won Skate America, both have withdrawn from this week’s NHK Trophy with foot injuries, meaning neither can qualify for the Grand Prix Final Dec. 9-12 in Osaka, Japan.

Others previously on the “disabled list”: Japan’s Rika Kihira, the 2018 Grand Prix Final winner and reigning national champion, withdrew from both her scheduled Grand Prix events, as did reigning U.S. champion Bradie Tennell.

2.  Hanyu still is entered in the Rostelecom Cup Nov. 26-28 in Sochi, Russia, but it would hardly be a surprise to see him withdraw from that event, given that the Final now is out for him.  He is bothered by an injury in the same area (right ankle) that compromised his training for two months leading up to his triumph at the 2018 Olympics.

3.  It is hard to imagine the Japanese Skating Federation not giving Hanyu an Olympic spot even if he is still in recovery phase and skips the Japan Championships in late December.  Should the Olympics be his first competition of this season, it would also be his first since the 2021 World Championships in late March.

4.  The saddest part of Hanyu being injured is this could be his final competitive season, and every event he misses is one fewer chance for skating fans to admire his surpassing talent and his fierce desire to push himself and the sport forward.

5.  The loss of Trusova makes it harder but not impossible for Russia to earn all six women’s places in the Grand Prix Final.

Daria Usacheva, second at Skate America and the fifth Russian in the current standings (if you subtract Trusova), should benefit from Trusova’s absence at NHK.  The five remaining Russians occupy places 2-3-5-6-7 (Trusova is 4), but the leader, Mai Mihara of Japan, has done her two events while the Russians each has done just one.  Mihara’s two fourth places won’t be enough to qualify.

Maya Khromykh, sixth in the standings, will face an internecine battle at the final event, in which compatriots Kamila Valieva (2) and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (5) also are entered.

Alena Kostornaia (10) looks like the X factor.  She is sixth among the Russians and also currently trails Loena Hendrickx of Belgium and You Young of South Korea when tie-breakers are factored in.

6.  It’s a measure of how fast the Russian assembly line moves that Kostornaia was her country’s leading woman heading into the pandemic-cancelled 2020 Worlds, having won both the Grand Prix Final and European Championships that season.

Sui Wenjing flies above Han Cong in Skate Canada short program. (Skate Canada photo)

7.  First-year international seniors Ilia Malinin (Austria Ice Challenge this week) and Lindsay Thorngren (Warsaw Cup next week) are headed to Challenger Series events to seek the technical minimums they would need to qualify for the OIympics and senior world championships.  Neither U.S. skater is favored to make those teams, but each will likely be in contention.

8.  There is no official central repository of figure skating statistics, so there is no easy way to know if Yuma Kagiyama’s wiping out a 17.36-point deficit after the short program to win the Italian Grand Prix is a record.  (It is: see addendum below.) The 18-year-old Japanese phenom is not the first to jump from seventh after the short to win a major international event:  Adam Rippon of the U.S. did it from 12.04 points back at the 2010 Four Continents Championships, and Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland did it from 14.35 behind at 2006 Skate Canada.  (There may have been others.)

And: My good friend at SkatingScores.com has done the research and found out Kagiyama did overcome a record deficit.

9.  Tuktamysheva’s winning a silver medal at Skate Canada 10 years after she won the event is mind-boggling in a sport where one Olympic cycle now is looking like a career for the top women.  Tuktamysheva has won Grand Prix medals in nine of the 11 seasons from 2011/12 through 2021/22.  She bottomed out in the last Olympic season but has come back better than ever.

“If someone told me 10 years ago that I could do this, I would never believe them,” she said.

10.  LaTuk, 25 in December, still has a way to go to match the medal-winning span of Italy’s Carolina Kostner.  She won her first Grand Prix medal in 2003 and her last in 2017 at age 30 (with a three-season gap, 2014 through 2016, when she did not compete on the circuit.)

Michelle Kwan?  Won her first GP medal in 1994 and last in 2002.

11.  Nathan Chen’s unbeaten-streak-ending defeat at Skate America may reduce some of the pressure on him heading to the Beijing Olympics, as apparent invincibility would be a heavy burden to carry on a slippery surface. Chen had not lost since the 2018 Olympics.

Chen, third at Skate America, came back to win Skate Canada with a performance more workmanlike than noteworthy.  (Of course, he still landed four quads in the free, with three clean.)  He also mentioned having a “hip thing” and declined to elaborate on it when reached after the competition.  That adds a little intrigue leading up to the Grand Prix Final, where he will (alas) not face Hanyu.

12.  Comparing scores from different events is a dicey proposition because of different judges and tech panels.

But you can bet everyone will be checking to see how the numbers for Russian ice dancers Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov at this week’s NHK Trophy compare to those of French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron in their winning programs from last week’s Italian Grand Prix.  Those two couples are the prime contenders for Olympic gold.

NHK is the season debut for the Russians, reigning world champions (Papadakis and Cizeron did not compete at the 2021 worlds.)

Did the politics of this rivalry begin to show in Italy?  The Russian judge, Lolita Labunskaya, was the only one to place the French couple second in PCS in the rhythm dance, and her scores were on the lower end of the TES and PCS in both rhythm and free dance.  The French judge, David Molina, was on the higher end in all four areas.

FWIW:  Both France and Russia have a judge in the 13-person pool for Olympic ice dance.

13.  It has been a long, often bumpy road for Chinese pair Sui Wenjing, 26, and Han Cong, 31.  The two-time world champions have been together since 2007, losing part of several seasons because of injury and illness.  They have competed in senior Grand Prix events since 2010 and have won medals in 15 of their 16 appearances, including gold in their last six.

Their quest for an Olympic title – and likely China’s only figure skating medal in Beijing – is significant enough in their homeland that pairs has been switched from the first event after the team competition to the final event of the 2022 Winter Games.  Pairs had opened the figure skating competition at every Olympics from 1980 until the team event debuted in 2014.

Sui and Han have won both their Grand Prix events with terrific – if not flawless – performances.  Their main rivals for the Olympic title, reigning world champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksander Galliamov of Russia, open their Grand Prix season this week at NHK after posting a personal best free skate score at the Finlandia Trophy Challenger Series event a month ago.