Can the Quad God save figure skating? | CBC sport

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Figure skating and controversy seem to go hand in hand, and last season was a stronger example of that than most.

In February, the Beijing Winter Olympics were rocked by a doping scandal involving 15-year-old women’s gold medal favorite Kamila Valieva, who was allowed to continue competing after a drug test she took on Christmas Day failed. finally positive for a lock was heart medication. Valieva collapsed under the exam and stumbled to a fourth place finish in the women’s competition. But she and her Russian teammates were allowed to keep their victory in the team event pending an investigation (more on that later).

Four days after the closing ceremony in Beijing, Russia invaded Ukraine. Like many of the sport’s world federations, figure skating promptly banned Russian and Belarusian athletes, causing them to miss the world championships at the end of March. This eliminated the reigning world champions in three of the four disciplines and, in the opinion of some, gave many medals an asterisk.

CLOCK | Skate America Grand Prix Preview:

As the 2022-23 season of figure skating Grand Prix is ​​set to begin Friday night near Boston, the Valieva saga and the Russian-Belarusian ban continue to hang over the sport. Here’s the latest on those things, as well as some other storylines to follow this season:

Russians are not there, but their shadow remains

Eight months after Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency announced it would open an investigation into Valieva’s positive test, the deeply corrupt organization (yes, the same organization that played a key role in the country’s massive, state-sponsored doping program) is still dragging his feet on this process. This is causing frustration among skaters from other countries involved in the Olympic team event (including fourth-placed Canada) who are in line for a medal upgrade if the Russians are disqualified. Read more about it here.

Meanwhile, Russian and Belarusian athletes remain unwanted person in the figure skating community. The World Ice Skating Federation decided in June to extend its ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus and not hold international competitions in those countries “until further notice”. Russia has traditionally hosted one of the six regular stops on the Grand Prix circuit, but this year’s (late November) has been moved to Finland.

Instead of the Grand Prix, the Russians will compete in their own shadow circle of six events taking place concurrently with the Grand Prix across the country. Valieva is among those scheduled to skate in the opener in Moscow, which begins on Friday.

CLOCK | Catch up on Russian figure skating:

Russian figure skating update: skater bans, investigation into Kamila Valieva

Although Russian skaters are still banned from participating in ISU events due to the war, there is still a lot of news surrounding the national team.

The Grand Prix season is finally back to normal (sort of)

For the first time in three years, skaters will no longer have to worry about competing in empty arenas, and season winners will be crowned when the Grand Prix final returns to the calendar in Italy in December. The final – reserved for the top six in each of the four disciplines based on results at the regular stops – has been postponed for the past two years due to COVID-19 restrictions in the host countries (China in 2020 and Japan last year) cancelled.

However, the shadow of the pandemic continues to hang over the Grand Prix. With China still adhering to strict COVID-19 measures, its annual stop at the circuit (cancelled last year) has been moved to England.

Aside from the mentioned move of the Russian stop to Finland, the rest of the Grand Prix is ​​pleasantly familiar. Following the traditional kick-off of Skate America in the United States this weekend, the series continues as usual with Skate Canada, this year taking place in Mississauga, Ontario starting next Friday. Then it’s on to France, England, Japan and Finland before the final in Italy. Skaters may participate in up to two of the regular events. All of this, plus the Finals, will be streamed live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports App and CBC Gem, with additional coverage of specific events on the CBC TV network. The full streaming and broadcast schedule can be found here.

Can the Quad God save the sport?

With all the bad Russian vibes surrounding figure skating, the arrival of Ilia Malinin couldn’t have come at a better time. The 17-year-old American phenomenon (whose parents are Russian-born former singles skaters who competed primarily for Uzbekistan) had already branded himself “quadg0d” on social media before making the most impressive jump in the sport’s history last month .

While skating at a lower tier event in Lake Placid, NY, Malinin became the first person to ever land a quadruple axel in a competition. The 4½ rotation jump – the most difficult of the quad family and the last to be conquered – took place in front of almost no fans. But the video of Malinin’s feat went viral in the skating world, which had seen current men’s Olympic champion Nathan Chen play the quad axel only in practice, and former Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu unsuccessfully attempted to use it at this year’s games to land.

With Chen retiring from the sport after his Olympic win, Hanyu announcing his retirement in July, and Russia’s dominant women all being banned from competition, teenage Malinin could be figure skating’s star attraction this season. He will make his senior-level debut at Skate America, where the men’s event begins Friday night at 8:50 p.m. ET. Watch it live here.

Can Canada break out of its trough?

Canadian figure skating hasn’t been the same since the greats Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir walked away after their second Olympic ice dancing gold in 2018. Virtue and Moir also helped Canada win gold in those games’ team competition, while Kaetlyn Osmond (women) and Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (pairs) took bronze. As of the following season, Canadians have won just two medals at the World Championships — a bronze medal from ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier in 2021, and a pair bronze from Radford and Vanessa James at the severely exhausted 2022 World Championships. At the last Winter Olympics, Canada became completely excluded from the medals for the first time since 1980.

As the new Grand Prix season begins without the retired Radford and James, Gilles and Poirier remain Canada’s most consistent podium threats, while 2019 World Junior Champions Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha are also worth watching in ice dancing (both tandems will next be their Season Debut Week at Skate Canada). In singles, 19-year-old Madeline Schizas will be looking to continue her strong showing in the Olympic team competition, while 17-year-old Stephen Gogolev and Wesley Chiu are interesting prospects in the men’s.