Those hot pink gloves of Kamila Valieva: You couldn’t miss them in her Bolero free skate. They were the commas to every move. To the throbbing sounds of “Bolero,” the gloves skimmed the air, in and out and away as her hands moved, too. When she did a jump – any jump – the gloves […]
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva
The Newest Face of Russian Women
Before any talk of triple Axels or quads or such, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva stepped out onto the ice at the start of her short program at Skate Canada and did something seemingly quite simple. But astonishing nonetheless. Dressed in rose froth, the 15-year-old Russian stretched out a leg far, far up and behind her, up […]
The Empress Does What Empresses Do
There were the teenyboppers. And then there was the Empress. Together, they tell the story of what you will see in the women’s event at the Olympics in Beijing next year: quads, triple Axels and youth – except for that upstart Empress. The Empress is Elizaveta Tuktamysheva of Russia, who hadn’t even made it out […]
Jitters Hit Women in World Short Program
Jitters ruled the day. So many women had not skated in such a long time, and here they were at the world figure skating championships in Stockholm that some weren’t sure would happen at all. None of it went as scripted, except that Anna Shcherbakova ended up in the lead with a healthy 81.00 points […]