Figure skaters Grigorieva and Artyushchenko: “It is a great honor to participate in the competitions dedicated to the memory of Gorshkov”

Figure skaters Vasilisa Grigorieva and Evgeny Artyushchenko, winners of the Russian Junior Grand Prix stage in Moscow, declared themselves proud to participate in this tournament dedicated to the memory of Alexander Gorshkov.

Grigorieva and Artyushchenko became first in ice dancing at the Junior Grand Prix stage in Moscow with a score of 173.13 points. Second – Arina Gorshenina and Ilya Makarov (169.86), third – Daria Drozhzhina and Ivan Telnov (164.17).

— What does it mean to you to start this season’s Grand Prix series with two victories?

Grigorieva: We are very happy that everything happened like this, we are happy that we were able to show decent skating and not let down us, the coaching team, which devotes a lot of effort and time to us. We are happy to have been able to pull ourselves together, achieve very good performances and improve our results.

Artyushchenko: Not everything worked out. It’s a pity that in the rhythm dance they made a very stupid mistake, because of which they lost a number of points. We will try not to make such mistakes in the future and improve ourselves.

— Can you say that your dancing is now “in good shape”?

Artyushchenko: It seems to me that we started to skate with more confidence, more relaxed. We tried to work on it during this short time between Magnitogorsk and Moscow. They focused on emotions, on creating more contact within the couple. I think it worked. The coaches said I was more confident and energetic.

— This stage of the Grand Prix is ​​dedicated for the first time to the memory of Alexander Georgievich Gorshkov. What does this mean to you?

Artyushchenko: It is a great honor to participate in a competition of such magnitude, dedicated to a man of incredible stature. Alexander Georgievich made an invaluable contribution to figure skating, especially ice dancing. He was president of the federation for a long time, and at the same time an extraordinary athlete, an extraordinary personality, our first Olympic ice dancing champion. We are proud that we were able to show impeccable performances during competitions dedicated to an athlete and a person of such a high level, ”reports a correspondent, reporting the skaters’ words.

Gorshkov won Olympic gold in ice dancing with Lyudmila Pakhomova, and he has won the World and European Championships six times. Gorshkov has led the FFKKR since 2010 and has been re-elected to this position three times, most recently in May 2022. Since 2001, Gorshkov was a member of the executive committee of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and from 1998 to 2010 he served as president of the ice dance technical committee of the International Skating Union.

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