Luna Hendricks is the main action figure star from Europe

Luna Hendricks also competed with Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova (and beat them!), and now, when Russian figure skaters are not at international competitions, she is considered the main star of the women's figure skater. Her caustic remarks about Kamila Valieva were scattered into quotes. At the same time, every year her personal results are getting worse. We are talking about someone who is now proving with all her might that being in the shadow of Russian athletes is not her destiny.

Luna trains under the guidance of her brother Yorick Hendricks, a former famous figure skater. He made his debut at the Olympics in Sochi, and the brother and sister went to the next Games together, although they performed unsuccessfully. Until the age of 13, Luna did not even dream of figure skating: she trained once a week. But high sporting goals forced the skater to reconsider her approach. Her best result in the era of Eteri Tutberidze’s students was winning the short program at the Grand Prix in Turin, where she even beat Anna Shcherbakova. At the end of the tournament, Hendrix became third - at that time this was a striking result.

After the Russians were banned, they said on the international stage that Hendrix was the one who would benefit from this. She became the only European who imposed a fight on the Japanese who had seized hegemony in women's figure skating, and qualified for the Grand Prix for the first time. At the same time, the skater had to overcome circumstances: winter sports are not popular in Belgium. Even despite the successes of her figure skater, they were in no hurry to send her to the Olympics - the athlete collected money for her trip to Beijing using crowdfunding, and conducted training at public skating rinks. She has already won a silver medal at the World Championships in 2022, and bronze in 2023.

In 2024, Hendrix stands on top of the podium for the first time - she won the European Championship and qualified for the world championship. At the last World Championships in Montreal, Hendricks fell out of the top three after a disastrous free program. After the short, the Belgian was first with 76.98 points, but in the free program she scored only 127.27 - this is the eighth result. In the end, only fourth place.

And already those who said that in the absence of Tutberidze’s team on the world stage, Hendrix will be the star, say that without the Russians, the Belgian is steadily reducing her results - the rivalry with Shcherbakova and the company gave Luna a powerful impetus, forcing her to improve. With the Japanese as her main competitors, Hendrix can’t get all the components in order, although in pure skating she would definitely beat them – and quite easily. Her scores today cannot be compared with the scores of the singles skaters at the Russian Championship, even though it doesn’t count toward the score. And yet, one should not write off such a persistent figure skater: she has repeatedly proven that she is ready to fight for her right to compete at the Olympics and win medals. There are still two years until the Winter Games in Italy - and Hendrix will be the main European unit at these competitions. This, of course, is subject to the continuation of the ban on Russian athletes.