Alexandra Trusova: biography
The triumph of 15-year-old Alina Zagitova during the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games is still resounding, and the world of figure skating welcomes the new victorious young star, Alexandra Trusova. The athlete won the 2017–18 Junior Grand Prix Final; however, she is upset because she did not perform quadruple Salchow – the jump that few adult male skaters can do.
Sasha’s score for free skating at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships could be compared to single adult men’s results. Some skeptics among journalists emphasize the girl’s stretch is something to work on; they also believe it is simply dangerous to race at such a young age. Anyway, one cannot be indifferent to the new wonder girl from Eteri Tutberidze’s school.
Childhood
Sasha is the eldest child in the family; she was born in Ryazan in summer 2004. The girl’s father is a judo, hand-to-hand combat, and sambo master of sports. The mother used to be a track-and-field athlete and devoted herself to children: Alexandra and her younger brothers, Egor and Ivan.
At the age of four, the girl learned how to roller-skate. She devoted to this activity much time and, somehow, it turned into the interest to figure skating. During her first training, Sasha was taught how to fall. The girl’s mother, father, and grandmother went with her to an ice rink in turns.
The figure skating classes were held at the Olympic sports palace. The family lived across town, and it was necessary to wake up early to train. According to the young talent’s first coach, Larisa Melkova, the girl surpassed other children soon; she was musical and jumpy.
In 2014, Alexandra saw the performance of figure skaters at the Olympic Games; she supported Yulia Lipnitskaya. From that time, reaching this high result became her cherished dream; she jokes that an Olympic champion might have the right to sleep for a little longer. Sasha’s father, Vyacheslav Trusov, says he will do everything possible to help his daughter have her dream come true.
Soon, the father had to move to Moscow for his job; the family settled there. Sasha continued to go to a sports school and trained at the Khrustalny ice rink, the Sambo-70 sports and education center. However, she did not collaborate with famous Eteri Tutberidze at once.
Alexander Volkov and his wife, the choreographer Martine Dagenais, coached the future star for three years. Later, Alexandra worked with Anna Tsareva. However, she wanted to have a good example to follow, like Evgenia Medvedeva or Alina Zagitova. Thus, she joined Tutberidze’s group.
According to the athlete’s mother, the parents did not aim at making their daughter a champion by all means; however, they liked how enthusiastic she was. Sports can make one’s character strong, and it will, undoubtedly, be useful in the future. Sasha has identified her goals and works hard to succeed; naturally, her parents are proud of her. More than that, the father said that he would not expect any gratitude for what they did for their daughter: according to the man, parents were supposed to help their kids build their happiness.
Figure skating
The young athlete loves jumps; they brought her fame. She mastered single jumps quickly; the single axel and double jumps followed. By eleven, Trusova could perform the combination that included a triple jump; she tried the triple Axel, the most difficult element, but the right landing was a challenge for her. Under these circumstances, Tutberidze drew the athlete’s attention to quadruple jumps. According to Sasha, she mastered the salchow jump in April 2017.
Alexandra Trusova is not a pioneer in quadruple jumps: the extravagant French skater Surya Bonaly introduced it to Ladies’ singles for the first time in the history. However, the jumps were not counted because of the short rotation. The 16-year-old Japanese skater Miki Ando was the first one who made her performance with it spotless, and the complex elements were not shown for a while. It was Alexandra Trusova who showed two quadruple jumps in one program.
Sasha likes multi-turn jumps. As she was practicing for the Grand Prix Final, she performed a series of six triple jumps. According to the girl, she just met the coaches’ request “to have many jumps.” Trusova is not afraid to fall. When she prepares for a jump, she looks the judges into the eye so that they could not look away.
The 2014 Moscow Novice championships became Alexandra’s first significant competition; she was number 28. The next year, she reached the second position in the same competition and became the third at the Russian Championships in her age category. In 2015, she also met the performance standards of a master of sports. 2016 brought the third place in the Russian Cup on the second leg and the second place on the fifth leg.
At the beginning of 2017, candidates for the Russian Junior Figure Skating Championships participation were selected. Alexandra lacked only six points to the victory; Alina Zagitova won.
The same year, the young athlete participated in her first international competition: a leg of the Junior Grand Prix in Brisbane, Australia. She impressed the judges with the quadruple jump and took the first place. According to experts, nobody had gained as many points as Sasha without taking into account the finals. Later, the victories in the next leg in Minsk and the Grand Prix Final in Japan followed.
Present days
In March 2018, Alexandra presented two quadruple jumps, a Salchow and a toe loop, at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships. According to the athlete, she had begun to work on the toe loop only in December. Right after the short program, professionals realized that two representatives of Tutberidze’s school were competing: Alexandra Trusova and Alena Kostornaia, the winner of the bronze medal at the Russian Figure Skating Championships.
By the way, Alexandra could not participate there because of her young age. Eventually, Trusova broke a record in free skating in Bulgaria; she showed the “trademark” of Zagitova, the combination of a Lutz and a loop jump. The champion says she likes to have strong opponents: a victory becomes even more valuable and brings more joy.
Today, coaches need to keep the girl’s enthusiasm until the 2022 Olympic Games. By fall 2019, Alexandra will have the right to perform in adult championships where she will meet numerous strong rivals she desires.
Figure skating is not a distraction from the school studies. The athlete has classes in the evening; mathematics is her favorite subject. She spends her free time as an ordinary teenager: reads fantasy books, uses social networks, and posts photos from her trips. She takes her talisman, a chihuahua Tina, when she travels somewhere. The girl’s mother accompanies her when the athlete goes abroad; when she travels across Russia to participate in tournaments, the grandmother is usually there.
Alexandra thinks about her plans for the future. In one of her interviews, she mentioned she wanted to devote her life to animals. When she went to Australia, she had some time between рук competitions and visited the zoo: she held and stroke all animals she could reach.
Evgenia Medvedeva is Sasha’s example: she likes both her character and sports form. Besides, she always wanted to be the first one in something and trained to perform the triple axel and the quadruple jumps.
In September 2018, in Kaunas, this dream came true: Alexandra Trusova became the first female athlete in the history of figure skating who showed the quadruple Lutz jump, one of the most difficult elements. The talented youth broke the record in the short (74,74) and free skate (146,70) programs as well as the total results (221,44). In addition to the record, she also included the elaborate combination of the quadruple and triple toe loops.
Achievements
- 2017 – gold medals at the Junior Grand Prix (three legs and final);
- 2018 – Russian Junior Figure Skating Championships gold medal; World Junior Championships gold medal.
