Russian women sweep figure skating worlds podium for first time

vostok · Mar 27, 2021

Russian women secured their first podium sweep in the 115-year history of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships on Friday night, thanks to two 16-year-olds and a 24-year-old.

Anna Shcherbakova, 16, led the way with a program that included a cheated quad flip but was otherwise clean, holding on to her lead from the short program.

Skating in her first senior worlds, the 2019 world junior silver medalist earned 152.17 points for her free skate. She ended the event with a 233.17 total.

“I think the world championship is a very important competition,” Shcherbakova said. “To me, it is a great honor to have won and I think it will give me more energy to work harder and for next season.”

Shcherbakova turns 17 on Sunday and said the victory was the “best ever present for my birthday.”

Russian women have now won five of the last six women’s world titles, and 10 of the last 12 world junior titles.

At age 24, Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva returned to worlds for the first time since 2015, when she won gold, to take the silver with a 220.46 total and a free skate that included two triple axels.

“This has not been an easy year for any of us,” Tuktamysheva, who had contracted COVID-19 toward the end of 2020, said. “For me, the silver medal at the world championships in the pre-Olympic year motivates me and I want to qualify for the Olympic Games.”

Aleksandra Trusova made the comeback of the week, vaulting from a shocking 12th in the short program to land the winning free skate score of 152.38, good for a total of 217.20 and the bronze medal in her worlds debut. The 2018 and 2019 world junior champion’s free skate included an attempted five quads (three had errors), something only one or two men planned to attempt at this world championships.

“I’m very happy I was able to move from 12th to third place,” Trusova said. “Yes it was a difficult year and I am very happy the world championships took place because last year it was canceled and we were really waiting for it.”