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

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

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OIympic champion, and reigning world bronze medalist Alexandra Trusova of Russia, who won Skate America, both have withdrawn from this week’s NHK Trophy with foot injuries, meaning neither can qualify for the Grand Prix Final Dec. 9-12 in Osaka, Japan.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.

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Quad Queen Trusova does just one but still easily rules at Skate America

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Quad Queen Trusova does just one but still easily rules at Skate America

It must have felt like a day off for Aleksandra Trusova.

The 17-year-old Quad Queen from Russia was a runaway winner Sunday at Skate America in Las Vegas despite limiting herself to just one free skate quadruple jump, a lutz, because of an unspecified foot injury.

“It was like a day of rest,” Trusova said. “We wanted to skate here with three quads but couldn’t. With the injury, I lost a lot of practice time.”

It was the first time Trusova has attempted fewer than three quads at international competition in 11 events dating to the fall of 2018. She did five clean quads in a national event last month.

The third Grand Prix triumph of Trusova’s career came with a total of 232.37 points, more than 15 ahead of compatriot Daria Usacheva, 15, who was making her senior Grand Prix debut.

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Russians putting a world of hurt on women’s singles rivals

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Russians putting a world of hurt on women’s singles rivals

This is what the rest of the women’s singles skaters in the world are up against.

(“The rest” means everyone who is not competing for Russia.)

Mother Russia sent three of her talented daughters to Las Vegas for Skate America, the first event of the Grand Prix Series in this Olympic season.

Only one, Aleksandra Trusova, was among the three Russian women who had swept the podium at last season’s World Championships, a feat in women’s singles previously pulled off by only a U.S. trio in 1991.

And Trusova came to Vegas with a foot injury that sparked talk she might withdraw.

And her two singles compatriots at Skate America, Daria Usacheva and Kseniia Sinitsyna, each was making her senior Grand Prix debut.

Yet they swept the top three places in Saturday’s short program, with all three recording personal bests: Trusova, 17, the reigning world bronze medalist, at 77.69; Usacheva, 15, at 76.71; and Sinitsina, 17, at 71.51.

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In figure skating’s long, strange trip of a season, Nathan Chen showed the way

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In figure skating’s long, strange trip of a season, Nathan Chen showed the way

What a long, strange trip it has been for figure skating over the past 13 months.

From the cancellation of the 2020 World Championships in Montreal when the first wave of the pandemic hit full force last March through dealing with two more COVID waves since then, the International Skating Union had to:

*Cancel six of the 10 events (and indefinitely postpone two more) in the second-tier Challenger Series of international events.

*Remake the top tier, six-event Grand Prix Series as domestic-only, with no Final and both France and Canada cancelling their GP events. (Canada also cancelled its national championships.)

*Cancel its two regional championships, the European Championships and Four Continents Championships.

For all that, the season came to a satisfying end. The ISU pulled off both the 2021 World Championships last month in a Stockholm, Sweden, bubble with no spectators other than skaters and officials and the 2021 World Team Trophy last week in an Osaka, Japan, bubble with limited spectators – while Osaka prefecture was in a state of emergency due to a surge in COVID cases.

Here are some takeaways from the 2020/21 season (such as it was):

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At World Team Trophy, another angle on Chen-Hanyu rivalry

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At World Team Trophy, another angle on Chen-Hanyu rivalry

Thanks to NBC’s Peacock TV for the ability to watch the World Team Trophy from Osaka, Japan, at a reasonable hour in the USA via replay.

It meant I was awake enough to make some (hopefully) coherent observations after Thursday’s day one, which included singles short programs and the rhythm dance.

In no particular order of importance:

I used to think (at least until the 2018 Olympic free skate) that Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu was so dominant, particularly in component scores, that he could make one semi-serious mistake and still win in any program.

Nathan Chen has shown that thinking no longer prevails, particularly among judges.

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