For many years, the pairs gold medal at the World Figure Skating Championships practically had “Pozdravlyayu!” engraved on it.
Beginning in 1965, through 2005, Soviet or Russian skaters won 33 world titles. Since then, they have stood atop the podium just once, with Tatyana Voloshozhar and Maksim Trankov in 2013.
This week, at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, all three Russian entries – Yevgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovskii, and Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov – have a credible shot at gold.