Meet 14-year-old Elizaveta Tuktamysheva: the new star of senior ladies figure skating. The Russian phenom blew away the competition, and all of those spectators watching her skate for the first time--myself included-- during her senior Grand Prix debut at Skate Canada last week.
The scary part is that Elizaveta, fresh out of the junior ranks, isn't even the top-ranked Russian. That honor goes to her teammate, 14-year-old Adelina Sotnikova, the reigning junior World Champion.
Elizaveta's skating is fiery and technically-solid, but she also "sells" her programs with incredible maturity and composure. If this is how she skates at the beginning of the season, I'm greatly looking forward to seeing her skate as the season progresses.
Enjoy her stunning performances from Skate Canada! What a debut!
short program:
long program:
I was impressed by her immense composure at her first senior grand prix event, but I still see a lot of room for her to improve. Her jumps are very solid and clean and I love her quick rotation in the air, but to me it seems that her footwork requires attention. Refining it might just be what she needs. I think overall this is a very good place for her to be in though considering she is so young and has so many years to improve her technique. A commentator mentioned that a quad is in her future and this honestly wouldn't surprise me. I think it will start being more common among female skaters in the recent years. So, elizaveta still needs some maturity with her skating but of course that shall come with more experience. She certainly appears quite promising. I am looking forward to watching her career in skating; it is sure to be eventful.
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