Nicole Schott finished 13th at the European Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia on Saturday (01/15/2022). With the superior victory of the Russian Kamila Waljewa, the Essen native clearly missed the top 10.
Schott loses eleventh place in the short program
After eleventh place in the short program, the six-time German champion made too many mistakes in the freestyle. She didn’t do any of the three triple flips in her program cleanly, and she even fell once. To the music “Rain in your black eyes” by Ezio Bosso, the 25-year-old acted nervously at first, only finding her rhythm and elegance in the second part. With only 108.32 points, Schott was far from the best value of the season (123.63 points) set in November.
“Definitely not the best freestyle”
“It was definitely not the best freestyle, but I have to be honest and say that the preparation wasn’t that good.”, said Schott, who was handicapped by a corona booster vaccination and a cold. “After the first jump combination wasn’t triple-triple, I didn’t tackle the Rittberger consistently enough.” Schott, who is training in Oberstdorf, now plans to do the following for the Winter Games in Beijing: “My goal is to be in top form at the Olympics.”
Difficult season for Schott
With the 14th best freestyle, Schott, who had to take a long break from training last summer due to shingles, finished 13th in the final. Only in the 2018/2019 season, which was also difficult due to injuries, was she 16th in the EM landed even further back. With a total of 170.18 points, she missed tenth place by almost eight points. With a rank in the top 10 she would have the German Skating Union for the EM 2023 can bring a second starting place in the women’s competition.
Russian triple victory and quadruple fireworks
In the battle for the medals, three Russians and one Belgian later offered a firework of technical excellence. The only 15-year-old Kamila Waljewa won her first European title. The Russian champion, who had already won the short program with an unofficial world record of 90.45 points, beat the competition with a score of 259.06. The junior world champion of 2020 was more than 20 points ahead of the competition.
World Champion is second
Silver and bronze went to Anna Scherbakova (237.42 points) and Alexandra Trusowa (234.36 points). World Champion Scherbakova and the WM-Third Trusowa has struggled with injuries this season.
Belgian falls from second to fourth place
The Belgian Loena Hendrickx, who was surprisingly second after the short program, fell on two jumps and fell back to fourth place (207.97 points). Thus went as already with the EM 2020 all medals to Russian female athletes.
Not vaccinated – are Russians allowed to go to the Olympics?
It is still unclear whether the Russian trio Valjewa, Scherbakova and Trusowa will be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games. The trio is not vaccinated against the corona virus. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) refers to agreements with the Olympic organizers in China, according to which underage athletes do not have to be vaccinated. The International Olympic Committee (I.O.C) now contradicted that ROC, only a case-by-case examination can ensure exceptions to the Olympic vaccination requirement. If you want to take part in the Olympics, you have to be vaccinated. Otherwise, the athletes have to be in quarantine for 21 days in advance in China.