World Cup gold was suddenly so close
Hase and Volodin create four magical figure skating minutes
Hase and Volodin create four magical figure skating minutes
By Heiko Oldörp, Boston
03/28/2025, 11:00 a.m.
Briefly missed gold, won silver. Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin come to the greatest success of her young career at the Igfi skywheel World Cup in Boston at the Icfestae Championships in Boston. Now even Olympic gold seems possible. But there is still a hurdle.
They didn’t want to hear anything. No score, no placement, nothing at all. And that’s why Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin spent their ears on Thursday evening in the TD Garden of Boston. The indoor spokesman just said the result of the Georgians Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava. But Hase and Volodin did not notice that the EM-thirds taken in front of them were in the lead.
They just didn’t interest them. No, they stood on the ice, the eyes of the approximately 15,000 fans and tried everything that had nothing to do with the following eleven elements before the most important freestyle of their previous career. Now it was only about Vivaldi’s “four seasons”, about perfect jumps, lifts, throws – and a lot of charisma, elegance and harmony.
Appearance becomes a symbiosis with music and masses
The 25-year-old had worked towards exactly this moment on March 27 in the Boston Arena. With Dmitri Sawin, her coach, who accompanies her for all the competitions – and with Knut Schubert and Rico Rex, her home trainers in Berlin. They had traveled to the United States extra week and a half earlier, after Connecticut, almost one and a half hours of car south of Boston to get the jet lag out of body and head and to adapt to the somewhat smaller, North American ice rink. And among other things, they ran their freestyle at 8:30 p.m. to get used to the evening competition. Nothing should be left to chance. “We trained so much that we can run all situations under pressure as best as possible,” says Hase.
Now they had to deliver. They did – and how. At the start of the triple twist – perfect. Then the combination of triple toeloop and two double axes – also clean. The triple Salchow: No problem. When the rabbit ends up confidently after the thrown triple-rittberger, many fans jump enthusiastically and literally jumped off their seats. The love placed in them give back rabbit and volodine. Your appearance becomes a symbiosis with the music and the masses.
Proud friend, envious friend
When the last tone of the “four seasons” fades after four minutes and seven seconds, the audience rises and applauds loudly. Hase, on the other hand, can be fallen onto the ice. It is a mixture of happiness, falling pressure and the certainty of having shown a dream shorter here. “I intuitively felt that I have to throw myself there,” says the Berliner.
At home, her friend had followed the appearance in the middle of the German night. Already after the short core he had written to her how proud he was and that he couldn’t put it into words how nice it looked like to see her running with Nikita. Hases friend, this is basketball professional Jonas Mattisseck, building player from Alba Berlin. The 25-year-old was not only proud of his Minerva, but also a little jealous.
Season best at the highlight of the season
Because on these World Cup days in one of the sacred halls of America on the ice, the TD Garden. The home of the Boston Celtics, the reigning champion and record champion of the North American basketball profile NBA. “Running in such a huge hall has always been something special. The dimensions and the atmosphere are definitely more motivation to show a good performance here,” said Hase.
Their performance was not only decent, but extraordinary. With 145.49 points, Hase and Volodin set up a new best in the freestyle – of all places at the highlight of the season. The third had started the freestyle. After their gala, they led the field to at least bronze. But maybe even more was possible after this dream appearance?
Shake a little too big after short.
At 9:41 p.m. Hase and Volodin took a seat on the two armchairs of the “currently leading”. Now the wait started. Two couples still came. The Italians Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii and the leading Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara from Japan after the short -placed. The southern Europeans show nerves and falls behind the rabbit and volodine. The freestyle of the Japanese is also worse than that of the Berliners. However: Miura and Kihara went on ice with a 2.98 point ahead – at the end they remained 0.71 points. At 9:55 p.m., the waiting for rabbit and volodine had come to an end.
They had succeeded in the best freestyle of all 20 couples, but the deficit after the short shorter was a bit too great. “It’s a shame that it was very scarce. But we can’t accuse ourselves of anything today,” said Hase. For the German ice skating union (DeU), this silver has been the best World Cup result since Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot 2018’s gold medal. You are “very happy about it,” commented Deut President Andreas Wagner. He emphasized that the World Cup result “was once again an increase compared to the European Championship”.
Volodin needs German citizenship for the Olympic Test
At the beginning of February, Hase and Volodin won 212.48 points EM gold in Tallinn with an overall result. In Boston they achieved seven points more. “The path is clear,” emphasizes Wagner. That way is to lead Minerva-Fabienne Hase and Nikita Andrejewitsch Volodin to Milan next winter, to the Winter Olympics. While they are qualified in sports, there is still a bureaucratic hurdle. Volodine is Russian. In order to be able to start for Germany in ten and a half months, he needs German citizenship.
According to the DEU, Volodin should have its naturalization test until summer. To pass it, he learns German diligently, it is said. Volodin himself proudly emphasizes that his German becomes “better and better” every day. And due to the successful World Cup appearance, he now has “even more motivation.” And he now has more time, especially from now on. The season is over – and the view is very promising. A successful naturalization test – and the silver end of the season could perhaps follow a golden future in February.