Adelia Petrosyan began defending her Russian Cup title

The first leg of the Russian Grand Prix of Figure Skating concluded in Magnitogorsk. Three-time Cup winner Adelia Petrosyan, representing Eteri Tutberidze's coaching school, claimed a convincing victory in the women's competition. Mark Kondratyuk, a two-time silver medalist at the Russian Cup, won the men's competition.

The first leg of the Russian Grand Prix of Figure Skating concluded in Magnitogorsk. Adelia Petrosyan won the women's singles event with 223.00 points. Anna Frolova won the silver medal (206.58), and Dina Khusnutdinova won the bronze medal (204.76).

The Winter Olympics in Italy are just three and a half months away by sporting standards. In figure skating, which has always been one of the most important sports for us at the Games, this time, given international sanctions, only two athletes will be representing Russia (as neutrals), having earned Olympic licenses at the qualifying tournament in China: Adelia Petrosyan and Petr Gumennik. The skaters must still receive final approval from a special review committee of the International Olympic Committee. And every Russian tournament they participate in before leaving for Italy now takes on special significance: what is the condition of our "potential" Olympians? How are they skating, jumping, what are they saying after their performances? And overall, how are they?

Petr Gumennik skipped the first round. But Adelia decided not to put it off and came to Magnitogorsk. She won the short program, earning 75.89 points for her performance. The Khrustalny skater delivered an emotional performance—the audience began applauding almost from the first chord. Adelia executed all the elements, but her step sequence wasn't as confident as usual.

The second-best result, with a score of 72.74 points in her short program, went to 20-year-old Anna Frolova, who trains in St. Petersburg under Evgeny Rukavitsyn. Her program was distinguished by its emotional expressiveness and precise execution of elements, although, according to the athlete, there were some minor flaws.

Ksenia Gushchina rounded out the top three after the first day, scoring 70.60 points. Fourth place (68.76) went to Dina Khusnutdinova, a debutant at the senior competition and another representative of Tutberidze's coaching school. In the summer, the athlete from Tatarstan transferred to Eteri Tutberidze's school and began training in Moscow. Dina was the only skater in the first round to enter an ultra-c jump—a triple axel—in her short program. She executed the element easily and skillfully several times during the warm-up, but underrotated it in her performance and touched the ice with her hand on the exit. Everything else was clean. And the decisive performance of the free skate loomed.

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Let's be honest. The intrigue wasn't about who would win. Because only some unfortunate event would have prevented Adelia from winning the first stage of the Grand Prix. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Still, after her performance, the skater admitted that the performance hadn't been easy. Petrosyan attempted a quadruple toe loop in her free skate, but she hadn't quite nailed it yet.

"I always like to talk about things that didn't work out. I'm glad I fought to the end; every jump was a struggle. I'm glad I didn't fall on the triples. But it was really hard to skate today. It was strange. Not like usual. I was unsteady, stumbling... The first (quadruple) toe loop was pretty stable, there were questions about the second... But I definitely had less confidence today than yesterday. The program was longer, and the jump was more difficult. Eteri Georgievna did everything she could; it was all down to me—there were cockroaches running around, monkeys banging on drums; I have to deal with that," the FFKKR website quoted Adelia's comment about her winning performance.

Anna Frolova placed second. She also noted that her free skate didn't go as she'd hoped. Nevertheless, her performance elicited an emotional reaction from commentators Alexei Yagudin and Mikhail Kolyada, who gave her a standing ovation. Anna later explained that she'd had a nervous practice the day before, during which she'd managed to complete only a few elements, but her mental focus helped her focus before the performance.

"I'm happy that overall I'm skating and staying in shape. There are always mistakes and blemishes, and my skating isn't as strong as I'd like, but it's practically unnoticeable that I haven't put weight on my foot for two months. In my opinion, my performance was very weak; I'm dissatisfied with the way I presented the program today; I want it to be five times better," Anna Frolova shared her emotions.

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The promised intrigue was resolved: Dina Khusnutdinova took third place, her first medal at the senior level. In her free skate, Dina landed two triple axels, one of which was a combination with a double toe loop.

"I have only positive feelings after the performance. I'm very happy that I was able to place in the top three on my first attempt (at the senior Grand Prix). I was stressed in the short program because I fell sideways and couldn't land a good triple axel. I analyzed my mistakes after the short program, learned from them, and went into the free skate with a clean slate," Dina said.

Maria Zakharova placed fourth (203.01). She executed a clean quadruple toe loop in the free skate. Elizaveta Kulikova placed fifth (202.33), and Ksenia Gushchina placed sixth (200.24).

The next stage of the Russian Grand Prix series will be held in Krasnoyarsk and will start on November 2, 2025.

Published in the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, No. 29638, October 29, 2025

Newspaper headline: Olympic cockroaches and monkeys