- Joined
- Aug 21, 2012
Doesn't matter. Two battle-hardened Russian women will make it out of the war, and at least one of them will contend for the podium.
I think Sotnikova is the only Russian lady who can realistically contend for a medal (bronze at best); she's come close to beating Kostner before. If Tukt and Lipnitskaia are the Olympic team ... as good as they are, they don't have the Olympic-medal package quite yet. And Jammers raises a valid point about Julia approaching "that age" when young girls' bodies will grow and fill out to resemble their adult proportions -- Sotnikova and Tukt were both light little waifs before they smacked right into the puberty cliff.
The only lady I'm confused about is Zijun Li; I'm not sure if she's still awaiting a significant growth spurt, or if she's pretty much finished in terms of physical development. It's hard to say because there seems to be a trend among Asian girls (Yuna, Mao, and Kanako in particular) of remaining extremely slim after puberty -- however, I think that all three of them were still growing at Zijun's age.