Sochi-2014: Plushenko skated a record, Rakhimova qualified for the final, Sobolev shot a video of his own downhill

A Prologue with Plushenko

The Olympic Games have not started yet, but the idol of all the figure skating fans Evgenii Plushenko has already managed to take part in the team event, got a hand of the stadium and has even broken his own record during the short program! 

After the conclusion of his performance the whole winter palace “Iceberg” burst into exultation. At first the fans chanted “Djenia! Djenia!” (the shorter version of the name Evgenii), then it turned into “Russia! Russia!”. On the other hand, despite a brilliant performance and a personal high score (91.39 points) the Russian star came second after the short program, with the Japanese Yuzuru Hanuy heading the list. The Canadian skater Patrick Chan came third, having had a very successful starting performance. Despite a relative failure Plushenko contributed 9 points to the grand total of the Russian team in the brand-new form of Olympic tournament – the team event. The leaders of the short program in the pairs event Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankovcontributed another 10 after a brilliant performance that day.  

Фото: Владимир Песня/РИА Новости

* Figure Skating. Team event. Short program. Men: 1. Yuzuru Hanuy (Japan) - 97,98. 2. Evgenii Plushenko (Russia) - 91,39. 3. Patrick Chan (Canada) - 89,71.

Pairs event:
1. Tatiana Volosozhar - Maxim Trankov (Russia) - 83,79. 2. Meagan Duhamel - Eric Radford (Canada) - 73,10. 3. Peng Cheng - Zhang Hao (China) - 71,01.

The results of team event (after two rounds):
1. Russia - 19. 2. Canada - 17. 4. China - 15. 5. Japan - 13. 6-8. Germany, USA, France – 10 each. 8. Italy - 8. 9. Ukraine - 5. 10. Great Britain - 3. The team event (consists of eight rounds) will be concluded on Sunday, February 9.

Both the Americans and the Canadians hold no power over our “Khutor”

The first qualifications in the freestyle skiing – the women’s moguls – took place at the “Rosa Khutor” ski center (it is named after an Estonian migrant Adula Roosa, who settled there more than a hundred years ago). The only Russian athlete to qualify for the final today was Regina Rakhimova, who came tenth. 

The town of Tchusovoi (Perm kray, Russia) was the place to hold Regina’s best fans, for it is where she came from. According to what Mikhail Dolmatov, who is a member of the backup list of the Perm kray’s team, told our reporter, “Even the fact that Regina joined the Russian Olympic team thanks to her hard training is great itself”.

“Everyone is supporting both Regina and the Russian team in general in here” – mr. Dolmatov told us – “We could have hoped for a better result, especially when Ekaterina Stoliarova was being spoken of, but she was a little bit unlucky with the second hill. For now we are going to support our athletes during the second qualification where another ten chances to reach the final will be competed over”.

The back story behind the moguls is also of interest. During the official training session the Americans and the Canadians did not like the MO course for they supposed it to be too complicated and therefore they asked the organizing committee to alter down-run path. But team Russia’s senior moguls coach Steve Phiring lodged an official objection, for any alterations could be introduced only before the first official training session according to the rules. Therefore the whole route remained unchanged. The specialists consider that case to be highly untypical for freestyle. Usually everyone listens attentively to what the trendsetters in that sports discipline say and yield to their demands. 

* Freestyle Skiing. Women’s Moguls. The first qualification: 1. Hannah Kearney (USA) - 23,05. 2. Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (Canada) - 22,64. 3. Justine Dufour-Lapointe (Canada) - 22,28… 10. Regina Rakhimova (Russia) - 20,48… 18. Elena Muratova (Russia) - 17,95. 19. Marika Pertakhiya (Russia) - 17,53… 25. Ekaterina Stoliarova (Russia) - 8,44. The second qualification and the final round in Women’s Moguls wil take place on Saturday, February 8

Sobolev carries himself downhill in his own way

It is a challenging issue for the Russian team to keep up with the leaders and trendsetters – the Scandinavians and athletes from the USA – during the slopestyle snowboard events. Still, the Russian athlete Aleksey Sobolev managed to come tenth scoring 63.00 points during the qualification (that is the result of his first try). To qualify for the final he now has to come fourth or higher. The funny thing is that mr. Sobolev attached a camera to his helmet and therefore was able to shoot his downhill. The major Russian TV channels have already screened that video. The Austrian athlete Anna Grasser came first in the women’s qualification. No participants from Russia took part in it.  

Slopestyle, which is the type of extreme sport competition (for example – freestyle or snowboard), involves executing various acrobatic feats at hills, pyramids, drops, parapets and so on, with all of them set consecutively along the track.

* Snowboard. Men’s Slopestyle. Qualification: … 10. Aleksey Sobolev (Russia) - 63,00. Both the semi-finals and the final will take place on Saturday, February 8

The one thing we would like to add is that on Friday, February 7, the grand opening ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic Games will take place at the “Fisht” stadium. The live broadcast start at 20:14 at “The First Channel” and “Russia”

A total of 5 sets of medals will be competed over on Saturday, February 8. The first event will be men’s slopestyle snowboarding.