Petr Gumennik: “Malinin’s skate is on the edge of being demotivating. But you have to try to take something positive from everything. If he can do that, then theoretically anything is possible.”

Russian figure skater Petr Gumennik shared details about his preparation for the 2026 Russian Nationals.

original source: Championat

Russian figure skater Petr Gumennik discussed his preparation for the Russian Championships, his training with Rafael Arutyunyan, and the psychological challenges of high-level competition as he aims for the 2026 Olympics. Here’s a translation.

“I was a bit lucky that I wasn’t too nervous. For me, the Russian Nationals this season aren’t the hardest or most nerve-wracking event. Before my skate, I thought, ‘In a month and a half, I have the Olympics.’ So this skate felt less significant. But once I got on the ice, I felt the strong competition. Almost everyone is landing two quads. It definitely wasn’t easy!” Gumennik told Championat correspondent Anastasia Ratskevich.

On December 19, Gumennik placed first in the short program at the Russian Championships, scoring 103.77 points.

Gumennik also shared his thoughts on training with renowned American coach Rafael Arutyunyan and evaluated his work on the lutz jump.

“The trip went well and was productive. We trained a lot and worked on all the jumps. I think my salchow and flip were pretty good. I liked how my axel, loop, and lutz changed. I was able to train a lot and also rest. What happened with the lutz? It’s good I worked on it – otherwise, it would have been like what happened in Moscow. We’ll analyze with the coaches what happened,” he said.

“When you go for a difficult multi-rotation jump and make a mistake, it can snowball and get worse. You think, ‘This is the Russian Nationals, and what if I can’t do it at the Olympics?’ It’s very important in those moments to stop, cool down, and calm yourself,” Gumennik said on Channel One.

“I went mainly for technical work, but when planning the trip, I thought that after the Grand Prix stages, there would be a bit of time when you’re not fully rested and the Russian Nationals aren’t right around the corner. That’s usually a tough time to train, so I decided that if I went to Rafael Vladimirovich, I could gather all my resources, and train at full strength.

There were foreign skaters there. I talked a bit with Andrew Torgashev – he knows Russian. It was nice that about half the athletes there speak Russian. Many came up to me for photos. Even across the ocean, people follow our competitions and cheer for me, as they say,” Gumennik added.

“The training camp went great. I learned a lot of new things. I also prepared for the Nationals, ran through programs, and worked on technique with Rafael Vladimirovich. I think he was satisfied. I’m happy with the work too – I learned some new, necessary things for myself.

My activity on social media? I think I had more time because I couldn’t study due to the time difference – classes were in the middle of the night. I tried to get up at 4 a.m., but it didn’t work. I realized it was better to rest for now.

The psychological change of environment affected me – a lot was new. I just wanted to share with everyone what I was seeing,” he said.

“Everything went well. Rafael Vladimirovich [Arutyunyan] worked with me for about three hours a day, almost individually. We went through all the jumps, relearned the technique – not from scratch, but still. He corrects not only the technique but also the entries into the jumps,” Gumennik said on Channel One.

“As for Malinin’s skate? I saw it. But it’s on the edge of being demotivating. Those skates can lower your motivation, but you have to try to take something positive from everything. If he can do that, then theoretically anything is possible. When you feel like you can’t move forward, you see how Malinin skates and realize there’s still a lot of work ahead,” Gumennik told Championat.

Related topics: Ilia Malinin, Petr Gumennik, Rafael Arutyunyan, Russian Nationals