EVERETT, Wash. -- So much is different for Alexandra Trusova.
Even her surname, which is that of her husband of two years, Makar Ignatov, in its female version, Ignatova.
The Russian teenager who eight years ago led the quadruple jump revolution in women’s figure skating — and reacted with childlike petulance when her record-setting five free skate quads were not good enough to win the singles gold medal at the 2022 Olympics — is now a 22-year-old woman and mother of a 15-month-old son, Mikhail.
Between 2022 and now, her country has become a pariah because of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. She was able to start competing internationally again this season only under a special status as an “Individual Neutral Athlete.”
SKATE AMERICA: Full Results | Broadcast Schedule
Motherhood gives her another special status, since she is believed to be the first mother to compete in singles skating since Japan’s Miki Ando did it briefly in the 2013-14 season.
She no longer is the jumping marvel known as the “Quad Queen.” As a skater, she is more of a person in full, one who can interpret a program rather than simply run from jump to jump.
Ignatova showed that in Saturday afternoon’s short program at Saatva Skate America. A gossamer dress accentuated her flowing movement to music from the film “Lara,” as choregraphed by Frenchman Benoit Richaud.
“I did skate to more slow, more lyrical music before (in) one year. But now I know better how to skate to this kind of music,” she said through a translator after taking second in the short to a dazzling performance by Japan’s Ami Nakai, the 2026 Olympic bronze medalist.
Ignatova is plainly delighted to be back in the arena, an attitude that sharply contrasted to her previous workmanlike demeanor on the ice.
“Yes, I do enjoy really,” she said. “Otherwise, why would I do it?
“When you are young, and you don’t know another life, you just do what you have been doing since you were 4 years old. You go towards your goal. Because of this, you’re forgetting that you need to love what you’re doing.
“Therefore, when I came back, I knew that I want to do this, and I love to do this, and that’s why I’m enjoying it.”
She has made her life something of an open book in frequent Instagram posts. She recently recounted her long trip to Everett with Mikhail from last week’s Cup of China event, in which she took second, and a shopping trip here that left her wondering how she would get all her purchases back to Russia.
Either her mother or husband travels with her and her son. Her mother went to China and returned home. Ignatov met her in Washington.
She was disappointed to find out there would be no exhibition gala at Skate America, so there would be no chance for her to do side-by-side quadruple Lutz jumps with Ilia Malinin. He had a Lutz among three clean quads (in four attempts) while finishing second to Italy’s Daniel Grassl Saturday night’s free skate. Malinin wound up first overall.
The Lutz is the sole quad in Ignatova’s current arsenal, which had included the flip, Salchow and toe loop. For now, her free skate has one quad Lutz.
She has joked that no one should expect her to do five quads in a free skate again.
When even that wasn’t enough to take the 2022 gold from training mate Anna Shcherbakova, it left silver medalist Trusova in a fury.
“Everyone has a gold medal!” she said in Beijing. “Everyone has! Only I don’t! I hate figure skating! I hate! I will never step on the ice again! Never!”
The everyone in question were the Russians who had won the Olympic team event, a victory later overturned when it was learned another of her training mates, Kamila Valiyeva, had tested positive for a banned substance two months before the Olympics. Ignatova, who did not skate in the team event, later insisted that “only emotions” led her to talk of leaving the sport.
She kept going the next season, the first of three in which Russian skaters would be completely barred from international competition because of the Ukraine war. She did no national competitions the past three seasons, yet clearly was ready to take advantage of the opportunity to compete again outside of Russia.
“I don’t try to think about (it being) a break,” she said. “I know what I can do, and I worked for being able to skate well and clean, and to feel and feel myself on the ice as same as (before). Obviously, in my life everything is different now, but on the ice, it is still the same.”
Same old, same old includes training under the controversial Eteri Tutberidze, who had been her once and future coach. After the 2019-20 season, when she felt Tutberidze was more focused on her other top skaters, Ignatova left that training group for one directed by 2006 Olympic champion Yevgeny Plushenko.
After one season, she returned to Tutberidze. One season later, she was back with Plushenko. Then, this January, back to Tutberidze.
Phew.
Ignatova began her comeback this season with two Challenger Series events, and a win in the second made her eligible for the Grand Prix as an alternate. Places soon opened for her in the fields for Cup of China and Skate America.
A near sellout crowd at Everett’s Angel of the Winds Arena greeted her warmly, some encouraging her with shouts in Russian. She skated error-free and trails Nakai by eight points going into Sunday afternoon’s free skate.
“It is great just to be here and to be able to perform here,” Ignatova said.
Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at the last 13 Winter Olympics, is a special contributor to NBCSports.com.
