Russian star Medvedeva shuns media after huge fall in error-riddled skate in Canada (VIDEO)

26 Oct, 2019 12:07

Olympic champion ice-dancer Natalia Bestemyanova described Evgenia Medvedeva’s short program performance at Skate Canada as “absolutely terrible,” after the Russian star took a huge fall and refused to speak to media afterwards.

Two-time world champion Medvedeva, 19, delivered a disastrous skate, making big mistakes on two out of three jumping elements, including a horrible fall on a triple lutz.

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It’s sad that Zhenya Medvedeva delivered a bad skate,” Bestemyanova said. “It wasn’t bad, it was absolutely terrible: she had a poor axel, then fell on her lutz and combination of jumps was considered under-rotated by judges.”

The legendary ice-dancer noted that Medvedeva’s technical arsenal doesn’t allow her to beat young skaters who have successfully learnt extremely-complicated jumps, leaving former leaders far behind the podium places.

I can’t explain why this happened. She more likely doesn’t have enough motivation. Without having ultra c elements, It’s difficult for her to compete against girls who throw quads and triple axels,” Bestemyanova added.

Medvedeva, who had been Russia’s uncontested leader for several seasons, risks missing a spot on the national team this year, given that quad-jumping generation has been allowed to compete at senior level.

The skater, who was just sixth after the short program was visibly upset by her unimpressive start and refused to talk to journalists afterwards.