Anna Shcherbakova
Anna Stanislavovna Shcherbakova is a Russian figure skater. She is the 2020 European Silver Medalist, the 2019 Grand Prix Final silver medalist, the 2019 Skate America champion, the 2019 Cup of China champion, the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy champion, and a two-time Russian national champion.
On the junior level, she is the 2019 World Junior silver medalist, the 2018 JGP Slovakia champion, the 2018 JGP Canada champion, the 2019 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival champion, and the 2019 Russian junior national bronze medalist. Shcherbakova currently has the second highest free skating score of any lady – 162.65 points.
Shcherbakova is the first senior lady to land a quad lutz which she landed at her first senior competition at the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy. Additionally, she is the first lady to land two quad lutz jumps in a program, which she achieved at the 2019 Skate America. At this competition, she also became the first lady to land a quad lutz in combination.
She is currently the third highest ranked ladies' singles skater in world by the International Skating Union following the 2019-20 figure skating season.
Career
Early career
Shcherbakova began learning to skate in 2007 under Oksana Bulycheva at the Khrustalnyi rink of the Olympic Reserve Sports School no. 37 in Moscow. She switched to training with Eteri Tutberidze and Sergei Dudakov at the same rink in the 2013-14 season.Shcherbakova won gold at the 2016 Russian Youth Championships – Younger Age. She missed the 2017 Russian Junior Championships, held in February, after breaking her arm. Returning to competition, she won the silver medal at the 2017 Russian Youth Championships – Younger Age in March.
2017–2018 season
In the summer of 2017, Shcherbakova broke her leg while performing a triple loop in combination at a training camp. As a result, she missed most of the 2017–18 season, including her planned Junior Grand Prix debut. She placed thirteenth at the 2018 Russian Junior Championships.2018–2019 season
Shcherbakova debuted internationally on the Junior Grand Prix circuit in August. She was assigned to events in Slovakia and Canada. At JGP Slovakia, she was ranked first in both the short program and the free skate and won the gold medal by a margin of more than 18 points over the silver medalist, her fellow Russian competitor Anna Tarusina. Her scores at this competition were among the highest scores achieved in an international junior ladies competition after teammate Alexandra Trusova in the short program, and Trusova and teammate Alena Kostornaia in the free program.At JGP Canada, she was again ranked first in both the short program and the free skate and won the gold medal by a margin of about 5 points over the silver medalist, her former teammate Anastasia Tarakanova. With two gold medals on the Junior Grand Prix, she qualified for the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final. At the Final, Shcherbakova placed last in the short program after falling on her attempted double Axel and stepping out of a triple Lutz, missing her combination. In the free program, she fell on both quad attempts, placing fifth there and overall. Speaking afterward, Shcherbakova said she "really wanted to land my quad Lutzes, but I couldn’t do them cleanly and I fell, so I’ll try to do it next time."
At the 2019 Russian Championships, Shcherbakova placed fifth in the short program and first in the free skate, winning the national title over Trusova by 0.07 points. Shcherbakova said it was "very unexpected for me to win and I still haven’t realized what just happened."
Later in December, Shcherbakova competed at 2019 Russian Junior National Championships where she was expected to vie for the title again with her teammates Trusova and Kostornaia. After placing second in the short program and third in the free, Shcherbakova ended up with the bronze medal behind Trusova and Kostornaia. In the free program, Shcherbakova attempted a quad Lutz jump but fell.
In March, Shcherbakova was selected by the Russian Figure Skating Federation to compete at the 2019 Junior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, alongside Alexandra Trusova and Ksenia Sinitsyna. She took first place after the short program ahead of Trusova after receiving a score of 72.86. In the free program, she landed her quad Lutz jump with a minor error in the landing position, getting a negative grade of execution. The score of 147.08 was the highest she had ever attained at an international competition, but was not enough to overtake her training mate who had landed two quad jumps in the free program. Shcherbakova took the silver medal.
2019–2020 season
In September, Shcherbakova entered her first international senior competition in Italy at the ISU Challenger Series event, the 2019 Lombardia Trophy. After the short program, she trailed behind Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and You Young in third place. Her free program saw her become the first woman to land a quadruple Lutz in senior competition, ensuring the gold medal in her senior debut.Shcherbakova made her ISU Grand Prix debut at the 2019 Skate America, where she won the gold medal after placing fourth in the short program and first in the free skate. At this competition she became the first ever lady to land two quadruple Lutz jumps in free skating in an international competition, and the first ever lady to land quadruple Lutz and a triple jump combination in an international competition. In the free skate she became the second lady behind Alexandra Trusova to achieve a score above 160 points under the current GOE system when she scored her personal best score of 160.16 points, only about three points short of Trusova's world record. Shcherbakova also set new records for the highest valued single jump, earning 14.79 points for her quadruple Lutz, and for the highest valued jump combinations, when she earned 18.66 points for her quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination. Shcherbakova went on to win her second event, the 2019 Cup of China, albeit by a smaller margin.
Shcherbakova's results qualified her for the Grand Prix Final in Torino, where she placed third in the short program. In the free skate, Shcherbakova landed two quad Lutzes and attempted, but fell on, the quad flip for the first time. She nevertheless placed first in the free skate, and won the silver medal overall behind Alena Kostornaia. Speaking of the flip attempt afterward, she said "I will do it better next time. I can do it in practice, but it’s my first time in competition."
At the 2020 Russian Championships, Shcherbakova skated cleanly to place second in the short program behind Kostornaia, who was ten points ahead going into the free skate. Shcherbakova then won the free skate, landing two quad Lutzes and the quad flip for the first time, and won her second national title by just under two points overall. She remarked that "almost everything worked out as planned." She also outscored senior men's champion Dmitri Aliev despite ladies' scoring having only four-fifths of the value of men's component scores.
Shcherbakova competed at the 2020 European Championships, delivering a clean short program skate to place second. In the free skate, Shcherbakova landed the quad lutz-triple toe loop combination to start, followed by a quad flip. However, she fell on the second planned quad lutz. Despite the fall, she placed first in the free skate, and settled for an overall silver medal behind teammate Kostornaia. Together with Kostornaia and other teammate Trusova who took the bronze, the trio made for an all Russian podium at the ladies event.
Skating technique
Shcherbakova has landed the quad lutz in international competition, and is only known ladies skater who has landed the quad-lutz in combination with a triple toe loop. She has also landed a quad flip in domestic competition at the 2019 Russian Figure Skating Championships. She has also trained the quad toe. In addition to her quadruple jumps, she has also landed several triple loop combinations such as the triple lutz-triple loop and triple flip-triple loop combinations. She also regularly employs Euler combinations such as the triple flip-euler-triple salchow combination in her programs.Programs
Records and achievements
- Set the junior-level ladies' record of the new +5 / -5 GOE system for the combined total, short program and free program at the 2018 JGP Slovakia. Her free program record was broken by Russian teammate Alena Kostornaia at the 2018 JGP Austria on September 1, 2018 with 132.42 points. Her short program record was broken by Russian teammate Alexandra Trusova at the 2018 JGP Lithuania on September 6, 2018 with 74.74 points.
- Landed the first ratified quadruple lutz in 2018 at the 2nd Stage of the Russian Cup. She is also the first lady to land two quadruple lutzes in one program.
- Landed a ratified quadruple lutz in her first senior international competition at the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy. Shcherbakova is the first senior lady to land a quadruple lutz, and the second overall to land a quadruple jump, after training mate Elizabet Tursynbaeva of Kazakhstan.
- Set the new record for the highest valued single jump when she earned 14.03 points for her quadruple lutz at the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy.
- Became the first lady to land two quad lutz jumps in one program in ISU sanctioned international competition at the 2019 Skate America. At this competition she also became the first lady to land quad lutz and a triple jump combination in international competition.
- Became the second lady behind Alexandra Trusova to score above 160 points in free skating under the current GOE system at the 2019 Skate America.
- Set the new record for the highest valued single jump when she earned 14.79 points for her quadruple lutz at the 2019 Skate America. At this competition she also set the new record for the highest valued jump combination when she earned 18.66 points for her 4Lz+3T combination.
- Rewrote her own record for the highest valued jump combination when she earned 19.31 points for her 4Lz+3T combination at the 2020 European Championships.
Competitive highlights
with Alena Kostornaia and Alexandra Trusova