Alena Kostornaia is one of the most talented figure skaters from Eteri Tutberidze’s group. Kostornaia’s teammates Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova already performed the four-revolution jumps in competitions. For example, most recently, Trusova landed four quadruple jumps in the long program at 2019 Japan Open.

We haven’t seen Kostornaia’s quads yet, but we do know that she is capable of landing a triple axel. Below, we will take a closer look and analyze Alena’s 3A technique.

Kostornaia started working on a triple axel and landed it for the first time in practice at the end of the 2017/2018 season. According to Alena, it was her second-ever attempt of a 3A.

This particular jump is huge (can you believe it was her second time trying?!) but there is not a lot of control and it looks a little bit “wild”. In one of the interviews, Alena mentioned that at the time she was landing 2 out of 5 triple axels.

Since then, we haven’t seen Kostornaia landing a 3A or attempting it at competitions up until a year and a half later. Alena has been dealing with some injuries and battling puberty throughout the whole 2018/2019 season.

Alena Kostornaia’s 3A came back at the beginning of the next season – she landed a few attempts at practice at 2019 Finlandia Trophy.

This one was done in combination with a 2T.

You can really tell that Alena visibly grew in the past few years which is the reason (in combination with multiple injuries) why it took her a while to figure things out. The jump might not look as high as the one from 2018 but it is definitely more controlled which is the most important to be able to perform it consistently. The technique of this triple axel is very good, she has a nice snap, I like her arms work on a takeoff as well as tight and efficient air position.

This is the first triple axel Kostornaia landed in competitions – she did 3A + 2T combo in the free skate at 2019 Finlandia Trophy. Alena got a total of 11.97 points and 2.67 GOE for this combination which is higher than Elizaveta Tuktamysheva’s GOE for her 3A. Alena’s entrance into this jump is absolutely stunning!

She landed the second 3A in the program as well but it was slightly under-rotated and she didn’t get full value for the element.

Speaking of quad jumps, we’ve never seen any attempts of the quadruple jumps from Kostornaia. Alena is not focused on them – at least not at this point. She is working more on the consistency of a triple axel and a perfect execution of the rest of the program which can be enough to place ahead of the competition including Alexandra Trusova.

Kostornaia’s main focus is on using her strengths (great spins, well-balanced skating, and musicality) instead of heading in the “quad direction”.