Aleksandra Boikova: “I agree that soon pair skating will become ice dance. But I want to stick to my approach, to increase difficulty, and prove that figure skating is, above all, a sport.”

Three-time Russian champion Aleksandra Boikova expressed concerns about new figure skating rules, stating she does not see progress in the sport and emphasizing the importance of maintaining technical difficulty and athleticism.

original source: Okko / text version Sports

Aleksandra Boikova, who competes with Dmitri Kozlovskii, commented on the leaders in international pair skating. Here’s a translation of her comments.

“Q: The pairs remaining in the sport are Hase/Volodin, Metelkina/Berulava, and Pavlova/Sviatchenko. Of these three, which do you see as your main competitors?

Aleksandra Boikova: I would actually name two pairs: Nikita with Minerva and Nastya with Luka. In my opinion, these are two fairly equal pairs competing with each other – the one who skates best will be first.

Surely, when we return to the international stage, we’ll compete with these duos as well.

Q: Do you think it will be difficult to compete with them without a quad throw?

Aleksandra Boikova: No, I don’t think so. I believe we all have equal content, but we, for example, have more speed. It’s hard to judge from a broadcast, but we skated with Nastya and Luka in Perm, and I think I saw Nikita and Minerva in Sochi, maybe at a training camp. I can say we have an advantage in speed and ease of execution.

Q: The next season will obviously start with rule changes. It’s already being said that in pairs, one pair lift will be replaced with a dance lift; one jump will be removed, leaving a two-jump combination… Yet you continue to stick to your approach. Do you think that without ultra-c elements, “victory goes to those who have at least some difficulty”? But do you feel that everything is being done to turn figure skating into just skating, not a battle of ultra-c elements?

Aleksandra Boikova: I agree that soon pair skating will become ice dance. But I want to stick to my approach and prove that figure skating is, above all, a sport. You need to be faster, higher, stronger. And for that, you need to increase difficulty.

In terms of skating, we have a slight advantage. I’m not saying we’ll stop developing. No, we know what we need to work on, what can be improved, made more interesting, more difficult. But I don’t want to forget about technique.

I’ll say this: probably, the viewership of pair skating in Russia has increased a lot this season. Why? Because of our quad throw.

Q: What about worldwide? Do you think it’s gone up or down?

Aleksandra Boikova: I think it’s gone down. With the absence of Russians and the Chinese pairs – even two Chinese duos – pair skating ratings have dropped significantly. The Asian market is huge for figure skating viewership, and so is the Russian market. Neither group finds it interesting to watch now.

That’s my logic. I think viewership in this discipline may have fallen.

Q: Why do you think all these changes are happening: simplifying rules, reducing the number of jump elements in men’s and women’s singles? Where do you see figure skating going globally, and do you see any development?

Aleksandra Boikova: Unfortunately, I don’t see any development in figure skating. That’s the biggest problem.

I agree with Dima’s opinion – we’ve discussed this many times – that if this is about sport, why should everyone be compared by some common denominator? If you can run fast, why should you run at an average pace? Why should you adjust to those who are catching up?

Q: Because there are more people catching up, apparently.

Aleksandra Boikova: So what? That’s the whole point of sport. There should be unique people who move the sport forward, not drag it backward.”

Related topics: Alexandra Boikova Dmitri Kozlovski