Denis Vasiliev hardly imagined the Olympic season like this – he started creating the short program in the spring, the optional program in the summer, but had to abandon it due to music copyrights. There followed a fight with the Latvian Skating Union over money matters, which in turn provoked the departure of the coach Stefans Lambjēls and the Swiss city of Champeris, where Denis lives and trains for almost ten years. Then a bad start to the season, retraining, correcting mistakes in his performance, injury and a return to Champeree.
What the Latvian figure skater experienced in the last six months could be compared to beating herself on plastic ice. A laga does not slide forward, although many say that its legs become stronger. It seems the same is happening with Dennis, who is scheduled to premiere his optional program here in Sheffield three weeks before the Olympics.
The new optional program was created in December, but for the first time Denis Vasiliev performed its full skating at the European Championship in Sheffield. A new program is still only half-baked, because a couple of weeks before the start of the championship, there was a question whether to go to Sheffield at all, if the leg hurts so much that it is not possible to perform any heavier element.
If you compare the short program and the optional program, measured in percentages, the week before the European Championship readiness was 62% and 20%, while on the days of the competition – 65% and 30-35%, Vasiļjevs admitted.
Physiotherapist Mārtiņš Kadarozol helped our figure skater perform a small miracle. Special exercises, massages several times a day, first in Switzerland and then also in the European Championship. A cross between a football player and a gymnast with enormous power in his legs, but at the same time very flexible and mobile – this is how Mārtiņš describes Denis from his previous experience.
Against such a background, Denis showed a great performance in Sheffield. Yes, there was no quadruple jump and no perfect pirouette, but the rating received stunned the commentators, the audience and the team.
“We need to simplify the rules. Every year it gets more and more terrible. The rules are more complicated and less understandable. The audience does not understand how these points are formed. Yes, it’s not just creating something…
No, it should be easy, to create something simple,” believes Denis’s coach Stefan Lambiel, and his manager Christopher Trevisian agrees.
He points out that the judges’ evaluations have been inconsistent: “We have elements that should be evaluated in a certain way, but in different competitions, they are evaluated differently for no reason. And a clear example was in Denis’s short program in the step path, which was awarded the first level. It was an incomprehensible decision, and when you review the step path, which was very well executed, it is difficult to understand why?
Just a month ago, he completed this exact same element and received the fourth level. Same element, but what has happened?
And that’s hard to understand in an opaque system, and it’s frustrating.”
In the premiere of the optional program, there was also a question – whether Denis’ leg will be able to withstand four minutes of skating. Passed. The slow motion of the replay alone shows him coming up, pushing against his leg, after the last train spin.
“With everything that has happened, I have made a huge step in my personal life. How this season started, everything that happened… I have already won. That’s why I’m back in Champery, but still I’m not the same boy. Maybe a little more grown up man. And I’m waiting for the time when I’ll have the opportunity to fly out of the stork’s nest again and find my way,” says Denis about the experience.
Denis has exactly three weeks until the start of the Olympic Games. As always, he leaves Sheffield with a huge charge of energy from fans and at the same time the question – is it my fault or somewhere else if I remain ninth after a standing ovation?
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