Pyotr Gumennik's Olympic Calculation: risk, program, and Medal chances
Russian figure skater Pyotr Gumennik is approaching the 2026 Olympics with one of the most demanding programs in men's single skating. He has already qualified and confirmed his status as a candidate for a high result. The main bet is on the maximum number of quadruple jumps and a high base score. How justified is this risk, how Humennik intends to surprise the judges and what are his real chances in the fight for the Olympic medal — in the Izvestia article.
How did Pyotr Gumennik qualify for the 2026 Olympics and in what status will he perform
Petr Gumennik won a nominal Olympic quota and qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo following the results of the ISU Skate to Milano qualification tournament. At these competitions, the Russian figure skater showed the best result in men's single skating, scoring 262.82 points in the sum of the short and free programs and confidently outstripping his rivals.
The qualification tournament became a key stage in the selection for the Olympics for athletes who did not receive quotas through the World Cup, and allowed them to compete for the remaining places in the Olympic tournament. The victory at Skate to Milano secured Humennik's personal right to participate in the Games.
At the 2026 Olympics, the figure skater will compete in men's single skating as an individual neutral athlete. This decision was made as part of the current procedure for admitting individual Russian athletes without national symbols after verification by the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union.
The life and career of Peter Gumennik
Peter Gumennik was born on April 11, 2002 in St. Petersburg. He grew up in the family of a priest and a pediatric neurologist, the athlete has two younger brothers. Humennik started skating at the age of four. At the age of six, he was taken to Moscow for a screening, where he was offered a place at the CSKA school, but the family decided not to move from St. Petersburg. His first serious figure skating lessons took place at the Yubileyny skating rink, and at the age of seven he began training in the group of Oleg Tataurov and Olga Efimova.
The junior stage of Humennik's career developed progressively. In the 2014/15 season, he made his debut at the Russian Junior Championship, after which he reached the stages of the junior Grand Prix. In the 2016/17 season, the figure skater won the singles tournament at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Erzurum. Later, he changed the training group and began working for Veronika Daineko at Tamara Moskvina's school, explaining this by striving for further technical growth and mastering the triple axel.
Pyotr Gumennik, who won the silver medal in men's single skating at the Grand Prix Junior Figure Skating Finals in Vancouver, at the award ceremony
In the 2018/19 season, Humennik won the Junior Grand Prix in Canada and Slovenia, won the silver medal in the finals of the series and took second place at the Russian Junior Championships. In the 2019/20 season, he made his debut at the Russian Adult Championships, and finished his junior career with a bronze medal at the World Championships.
The transition to the adult level was accompanied by a series of successful starts and forced pauses. In the 2020/21 season, Humennik began to regularly become a prize-winner at domestic competitions, including winning the bronze medal at the Rostelecom Cup, but before the Russian championships he faced health problems related to Osgood—Schlatter syndrome.
Later in his career, there were bright results and interruptions: victory at the Denis Ten Memorial, silver at the 2023 Russian Championship with an equal total with Evgeny Semenenko, gold at the Russian Grand Prix final, as well as episodes related to the replacement of musical accompaniment before the control box office and bilateral pneumonia in the winter of 2024.
Humennik paid special attention to education. He took the Unified State Exam, retook individual exams, and eventually brought one of the subjects to a score of 100 points, calling computer science his "seventh Unified State Exam." The skater chose ITMO University as a university, enrolling in a field related to software engineering and computer technology, and considered his interest in bioinformatics as an opportunity for professional realization outside of sports.
Pyotr Gumennik performs in the short program of men's single skating in the third stage of the Russian Grand Prix series in Krasnoyarsk
In the 2024/25 season, Humennik took fourth place at the 2025 Russian Championships in Omsk, after which he won the final of the Russian Grand Prix in Krasnoyarsk, scoring a record 314.54 points for Russian men's single skating. Later, he and Adelia Petrosyan entered the application for the Olympic selection, which took place in the second half of September in Beijing, and, according to Sport-Express, won both programs, winning a ticket to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.
A bet on maximum difficulty and risk
In the 2025/26 season, Humennik demonstrated high technical equipment: in the free program at the Grand Prix stages, he performed five quadruple jumps, including the senior quads - flip, Lutz and Rittberger, as well as two salchows.
Peter Gumennik's champion rental did not look like a reference in terms of purity, but it was he who turned out to be stronger than the rest in terms of the totality of details. In the free skate, the skater made noticeable flaws — a butterfly on the quadruple salchow and a mistake on the lutz, but these moments did not ruin the performance. The margin of technical difficulty, the high level of non-jumping elements and the stability of the second assessment allowed Humennik to maintain the advantage in the Russian championship even in a difficult situation and bring the start to a winning result.
After the tournament, the athlete himself, as the newspaper notes, spoke primarily not about the triumph, but about the path to it. He called the gold of the Russian championship long-awaited and stressed that he had been looking for this title for a long time, and now he is especially glad to receive the title of national champion. Humennik separately highlighted that he was able to perform the most difficult jumps efficiently and with good turns, and he reacted calmly to the rest of the mistakes, stating that he understood how to correct them.
Pyotr Gumennik, who took 1st place in men's single skating at the 5th stage of the Russian Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Omsk, at the award ceremony for the winners and prize-winners
At the same time, the victory for him was not the final, but the intermediate milestone of the season. According to Gumennik, from now on he intends to switch to preparing for the Olympic Games, and in January he plans to perform somewhere else in order not to lose his competitive feeling and the habit of going on the ice under pressure. The skater added that in training he tries to mentally transfer himself to Milan, but at the starts, on the contrary, he convinces himself to perceive the rental as a regular training job.
Humennik is known for striving for high technical milestones: five quads in the free skate is a rarity for most singles athletes and a factor that can provide him with high scores if all jumps are performed cleanly.
His programs combine sophisticated technical elements with artistry and growing stability, making him a notable competitor in the men's field.
Pyotr Gumennik's chances at the 2026 Olympics: competition and key risks
Despite the high results in the domestic arena and the victory in the final of the Russian Grand Prix, experts assess Pyotr Gumennik's fight for Olympic gold as extremely difficult. There is still high competition in men's single skating at the international level, and a number of the season's leaders have more powerful and stable technical potential. In particular, Ilya Malinin, an American figure skater who regularly performs elements of maximum difficulty, is considered one of the main favorites of the Olympic tournament.
At the same time, experts note that Humennik remains a real contender for medals. Its technical set, content density and the results of the 2025/26 season allow us to count on a high final place, provided there are clean rentals. The key factors for a successful performance at the Olympics will be the stability of the performance of difficult jumps, physical condition and the ability to cope with the pressure of the main start of the quadrennial.
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