Elizaveta Tuktamysheva: 2015 World Champion

Spurred by a successful post-Olympic season, Russia’s Elizaveta Tuktamysheva is preparing for next year by trying out a few new things. For the first time, the 2015 World Champion is working with Shae-Lynn Bourne and went to South Carolina last week.



“Finally my dream comes true. I wanted to work with her for a long time,” Tuktamysheva revealed. “I watched her programs and I thought, ‘she is really doing masterpieces!'”

It is not her first experience working with a North American choreographer. The skater from Saint Petersburg has worked with both David Wilson and Jeffrey Buttle in the past. Before traveling to the United Sates, Tuktamysheva sent Bourne some music suggestions.



“I sent her some music that I like so she knows what kind of direction I like,” said the 2018-19 Grand Prix Final bronze medalist. “I think she just has to watch my programs and she’ll understand what kind of person I am. I want something new, but I also want something that is a part of me.”

She got quickly to work with Bourne and they chose “Drumming Song” by Florence and the Machine for the Short Program. The Free Skating music was not yet determined at press time.



Following the choreography process, Tuktamysheva will join the training camp of her coach Alexei Mishin in Tampa, Florida. She did not take part in her group’s previous camp in Courchevel, France, as she toured in Japan with “Fantasy on Ice” for a month. However, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t working hard and preparing for the upcoming season.

Figure skating is moving fast, and 2015 World champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva is banking on an extra half-rotation to compete with a technical revolution led by quad-jumping countrywomen.



“I want to be on top,” Tuktamysheva told NBCSports.com/figure-skating in a phone interview following a bronze medal at Skate America. “If I want to do that, I have to work and keep improving in everything. Otherwise, I should stop skating.”

Five times a champion on the Grand Prix circuit – including at the 2014 Grand Prix Final – Tuktamysheva rallied from a solid short program but disappointing score of 67.28 (nearly six points below her season average) to land on the podium behind Russian national champion Anna Shcherbakova and 2018 U.S. champion Bradie Tennell.



“I was even happier to be third place here than I was when I was first place in Skate Canada last year, because I was thinking I could have been fifth because of the short program,” Tuktamysheva said. “I’m happy my free program was much better.”

Though the 22-year-old cleanly landed three of her signature triple Axels last weekend – including one in combination with a double toe loop in the free skate – she was nonetheless technically outgunned by Shcherbakova who, in her senior Grand Prix debut, became the first woman to land two quadruple Lutzes in international competition.



“Right now, it’s really hard to be on top in Russia, but you should keep trying so long as you feel like there’s a chance to win,” Tuktamysheva said. “I believe that I can compete. If there’s a girl who doesn’t believe, I don’t know why they would even try.”



Most fighting for one of three spots on the Russian team have a reasonable shot at earning medals – if not winning – March’s world championships in Montréal, making December’s Russian Nationals a must-watch.

Besides Shcherbakova, Tuktamysheva must contend with Olympic champion Alina Zagitova, two-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist Yevgenia Medvedeva, reigning European champion and fellow Alexei Mishin pupil Sofia Samodurova, junior Grand Prix Final champion Alena Kostornaia – who attempted two triple Axels (landing one fully rotates) to win the Finlandia Trophy, and two-time world junior champion Alexandra Trusova, who landed four quadruple jumps at the free skate-only Japan Open on Oct. 5.