All that gold: our skaters took the maximum after returning
Russian figure skaters won competitions in all four disciplines at the first stage of the ISU Junior Grand Prix series of the 2026/27 season, which ended on August 22 in Xi'an, China. Sofia Dzepka became the first among women, Lev Lazarev — among men, Polina Seseleva and Egor Karnaukhov — in pairs, Maria Fefelova and Artem Valov — in dancing. Moreover, the average gap from the second place was 21.32 points. Whether such a start means the return of Russia's former dominance in junior figure skating is discussed in the Izvestia article.
According to the textbook
The Russian junior figure skating system is traditionally much stronger than in most European and North American countries, where the development of athletes largely falls on the shoulders of parents, not the state. At this level, only the Japanese and Chinese compete systematically with the Russians. Therefore, four wins out of four should not be surprising — we gave such a forecast for the stage before it started.
It is premature to conclude from this that Russia will now automatically win all the junior tournaments of the season. The composition of the first stage was far from optimal, with the strongest athletes divided into seven tournaments. It was partly lucky that there was a generational change in junior skating — world singles champions Rio Nakata and Mao Shimada turned into adults this summer. And by August, no one is at their peak.
Each victory is valuable in its own way. Dzepka, who learned about the trip only a week ago, showed a new Russian women's skating — not running for ultra-si, but plasticity and diversity, which modern judges really like. But at the same time, she also did a clean quadruple, as they say in figure skating, according to a "textbook" — that is, a textbook with instructions on reference jumps. The score of 213.28 points is even higher than Shimada's champion total at the March World Junior Championships — 208.91. For Russia, there is even a pleasant problem here — who should be sent to the world Championship? Until recently, Elena Kostyleva was considered the undisputed number one, but injuries and disputes about the causes of health problems have shaken her position.
Lazarev seemed much heavier. He did four fours in the free skate, but imperfectly, and beat New Zealander Lee by "only" 20 points, losing in the components. No one has such a technical set of guys, but it clearly does not bring such a crushing advantage, which was recently. Lazarev's coach Sergey Davydov also notes this correctly — it is necessary to work on rotations and components.
"He and I simplified the content a bit, and I think we did the right thing, because it was really hard because of the jet lag," Sergei Davydov told Izvestia. — And you know, August, no matter how much we want them to ring, but the guys are still gradually getting in shape. He did well, coped with this serious condition. So overall, I'm happy, and if you look at the nuances, there's a lot more to work on. Still, we messed up with the spins, and I drove hard on Saturday, I didn't show the program. We can talk about time zones, but here almost everything is equal.
The second stage in Bangkok in two weeks will be more informative for Lazarev — the Japanese Taiga Nishino, the bronze medalist of the last junior World Championships, is in the application. Then he scored 241.23 points.
Good potential
Polina Seseleva and Egor Karnaukhov won the most convincing victory in terms of numbers. The Russians scored 191.84 points and beat the Chinese by more than 34. The third pair lost to the winners by more than 57 points. This raises the question not so much about the strength of the Russians — they are really very strong — as about the state of pair skating in the world.
It has already given way to synchronized swimming at the Youth Olympic Games. And if the depth of competition remains the same, the issue of pair skating's position in the international hierarchy will become more acute. For comparison, the 2026 world junior champions, Canadians Ava Kemp and Jonathan Elizarov, won in Tallinn with a score of 167.90 points.
The story of dancing is the most confusing. Maria Fefelova and Artyom Valov scored 162.16 points, while Italians Zoey Bianchi and Daniel Basile scored 154.25. But there were no leaders at the tournament — the Italians are seventh in the world. However, many of yesterday's juniors have moved to the adult level. Our guys can only be praised — they really broke into the international hierarchy on the spot and showed that they claim the best places. But this victory should not obscure the eyes with a veil of euphoria — a Grand Prix final medal will already be a success.
— A very worthy result, — Ilya Averbukh, silver medalist of the 2002 Olympic Games, world and European champion in ice dancing, emphasized to Izvestia. — In general, we had the right to count on him. And I want this first swallow to set the pace for everyone. It's great that despite these unfair years of excommunication of our guys, our team is in such combat readiness. And the juniors confirm this, but, of course, this is only the beginning of the season, the beginning of the fight to get to the Grand Prix finals. It's a good start, but we need to keep going. I am sure that in the next stages, with other representatives of our team, we can have such very strong, good results. We still need to look at those competitors who were among the leaders of junior sports. Junior sports rotate very quickly, but the most important thing is that we have a very good potential for an adult team. I would also like to say that I am happy for Sofia Dzepka. I gave her a short program this year. I hope that this also helped her achieve a good result. And congratulations to her coach, of course.
Depth of competition
But is there a crisis of junior figure skating in the world? If we understand the crisis as a threat of extinction, then no. 116 athletes and duos from 32 countries gathered in Xi'an, and 190 athletes and couples from 43 ISU members were announced for the 2026 World Junior Championships. The geography remains wide, and the series of seven stages is full.
But it is impossible not to notice the crisis of the depth of competition in certain types. In most cases, a wide geography means the arrival of Indian singles, Filipinos, and Indonesians who have difficulty performing double jumps. Of course, such skaters are needed to develop the sport and expand its geography, but only commentators and the most loyal fans can withstand several hours of competition with a wide range in the level of participants. ISU has something to think about.
In such conditions, the victory of the Russians means a big step towards the Grand Prix finals, where the top six get to the end of all stages, with each athlete competing in two. Winning a stage gives you 15 points in the standings. Last year, the passing results were as follows: Men have 26 points, women have 22, couples have 20, and dancing has 26.
This means that at the next stage for Russians in Bangkok and Ankara (for couples), getting on the podium will be enough to qualify for the finals. There is no doubt that the federation will not make any replacements — that would be unfair and stupid. With 15 points and one win, it's impossible to get to the finals.
But in Bangkok, the line-up will be more serious. Japanese women Rena Uezono and Sumika Kanazawa, the fourth figure skater of the last World Junior Championships Sofia Shifrin (a native of Moscow, competing for Israel) are among the girls. Fefelova / Valov was lucky — the rivals in Bangkok were almost the same, the leaders preferred stages closer in geography.
Well, the main thing is not even that — in Russian sports, juniors often take a bunch of medals, and then disappear when they become adults. I wouldn't want to lose anyone who won this weekend in a year or two - this mission is even more important than Xi'an's medals.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
