{"id":468,"date":"2023-03-30T10:03:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T10:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nial.me\/?p=468"},"modified":"2024-06-04T23:04:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T23:04:00","slug":"russian-moves-here-are-five-athletes-who-electrified-their-sports-with-unique-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/russian-moves-here-are-five-athletes-who-electrified-their-sports-with-unique-tricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian moves: Here are five athletes who electrified their sports with unique tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"
From ice hockey to gymnastics, Russian athletes have created numerous signature moves down the years<\/strong><\/p>\n Russian athletes have undoubtedly made their mark on sports worldwide – so much so that some moves in their chosen disciplines have been named in their honor because of the way they popularized or introduced them. Here, we look at five sports moves named after Russian stars.<\/p>\n Known as the ‘Magic Man’ for the way he handled his stick to pull off some unfathomable moves, Pavel Datsyuk was one of the biggest names in hockey in the 2000s and enjoyed a 15-year career in the elite NHL with the Detroit Red Wings before returning to his homeland.<\/p>\n Datsyuk will forever be a legend in the Motor City for his contributions to Stanley Cup titles in 2002 and 2008, but his participation on this list came after heroics in 2010.<\/p>\n Taking the first shot of a shootout against the Red Wings’ bitter rivals the Chicago Blackhawks in a January regular season game, Datsyuk made a mockery of opposition goaltender Antti Niemi. <\/p>\n Gliding up to the Finn down the middle, Datsyuk did a slight ‘dirty dangle’ that he was famous for, then quickly flicked his wrist to make it appear as if he would backhand his effort. Instead, the Russian scooped the puck with the inside of his stick into the net.<\/p>\n Datsyuk’s audacity understandably sent the Joe Louis Arena into rapture, as well as his teammates. “They can’t believe it on the Red Wings bench,”<\/em> said one elated commentator. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slow-mo play like that.”<\/em><\/p>\n While Niemi and the Blackhawks had the last laugh that season as he became the first Finnish goalie to win the Stanley Cup, he is often remembered for being on the wrong end of Datsyuk’s trick shot.<\/p>\n The move became immortalized as the ‘Datsyuk Flip’, with hockey enthusiasts attempting to pull it off on the popular NHL video game to this day.<\/p>\n On a side note, the ‘Datsyuk deke’ wasn’t too shoddy either. Again produced in a shootout, it led one pundit to ask: “How many does he have in his repertoire?”<\/em><\/p>\n Svetlana Khorkina burst onto the global stage with a pair of silver medals at the 1994 World Championships in Brisbane, not long after her 15th birthday. Two years later, she enjoyed gold-medal success in the uneven bars at the Atlanta Olympics, bouncing back brilliantly after suffering initial disappointment with a 15th-place finish in the all-around final.<\/p>\n The comeback ushered in one of the most revered artistic gymnastics careers of all time, with further high points including another Olympic gold medal and 20 World Championship medals as Khorkina became the first gymnast in history to win three all-around world titles.<\/p>\n Khorkina’s main specialties were the uneven bars and balance beam, and she left a legacy with at least nine moves named after her mainly in those disciplines, in addition to a few spread across floor exercises and the vault.<\/p>\n The first couple – the Khorkina and the Khorkina 2 – come in the uneven bars and involve half-turn hangs. In the former, Khorkina started with a back uprise and then made a straddle flight over the high bar. In the latter, she had inner front support on the low bar, formed a clear hip circle to handstand, then impressively half-turned in full flight to hang on the high bar. There is another move called the Khorkina-Chow or Chow-Khorkina, which was first performed by Amy Chow and is a Stadler one-and-a-half pirouette.<\/p>\n In the 1, 2 and 3 balance beam moves named after her, Khorkina dismounted the apparatus and performed either a full twist, a gainer two-and-a-half twist, or gainer triple twist. In the Khorkina 1 and 2 moves on the vault, there were also plenty of twists and turns with ‘the Khorkina’ in the floor exercise similarly involving a hop with one and a half turns.<\/p>\n‘The Datsyuk Flip’ – ice hockey<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
‘The Khorkina’ – artistic gymnastics (uneven bars) <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n