Russia chooses Plushenko for Sochi Olympics | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Russia chooses Plushenko for Sochi Olympics

Danibellerika

Medalist
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
That might be Plushenko's approach, but I don't think you get very far in life with that attitude.
Plushenko made it far in the past, when he didn't have that attitude. Now, to me, he's just tarnishing what would have been an immortal reputation as one of the all-time greats.

I am not understanding how an almost guaranteed 4th olympic medal tarnishes anything.
 

Panini

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Yeah, that was unfortunate decision, but that was again not Kovtun's decision. And I honestly doubt that any of those guys who beat him at Nationals last year would have secured two spots for Russia. Menshov last year was really not that great and it was not written in stone that he would have placed in top 10. We will never know, but that is beating a dead horse. I think Kovtun's last year performance at Worlds is irrelevant for the Oly's discussion.

I'm not saying that he shouldn't go to the Olympics as a punishment for not getting Russia two spots. But I do think it's relevant that he's performed badly at his first appearance at every major international competition (2013 Worlds, 2013 GPF, 2014 Euros) so far. He will definitely do better in the future, but at this point, he hasn't developed the mental strength to withstand the pressure of his first AND home Olympics. If he showed he could control his nerves at Euros this year, Russian Fed might have given him a chance.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
I am not understanding how an almost guaranteed 4th olympic medal tarnishes anything.

It's not the 4th Olympic medal. It's the way he's gone about it. Particularly trashing his fellow compatriot and blaming him for one Olympic spot.

Not to mention claiming his right to skate in the Olympic team event ("I will do the team event") and essentially deny Kovtun Olympic experience and a guaranteed medal, even though he had just lost Nationals.
 

Frenchie

I'm gonna customize the CRAP out of this title!
Medalist
Joined
May 4, 2013
I am not understanding how an almost guaranteed 4th olympic medal tarnishes anything.

It's getting there by saying the "other guy sucks" in a very unclassy way. And without "qualifying" to get there. At least, those are the 2 things I will remember from him this time around.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Not to mention claiming his right to skate in the Olympic team event ("I will do the team event") and essentially deny Kovtun Olympic experience and a guaranteed medal, even though he had just lost Nationals.

I don't think you are taking into account the support he gets from the Russian Fed to say these things. If they are telling him they want him at the games he can't come out and say Kotvun deserves to go, especially when he has receives $1,000,000USD in support.
 

Frenchie

I'm gonna customize the CRAP out of this title!
Medalist
Joined
May 4, 2013

Thanks golden411 for that likely explanation of what happened.
I wasn't aware those links had such an impact on the server, and I'll try to figure out how the multi-quote feature works.

I still hope that whenever anyone changes something in one of my posts in the future, I'll be informed of it and of the extent of the change.

EDIT: Thanks Mathman for the pm, I consider myself educated now - well, at least in this aspect ;)
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
I don't think you are taking into account the support he gets from the Russian Fed to say these things. If they are telling him they want him at the games he can't come out and say Kotvun deserves to go, especially when he has receives $1,000,000USD in support.

Yes, but on the other hand, he shouldn't fling mud either. And he should have qualified by doing Euros just like everyone else, instead of "earning" his spot in a closed door non-competitive test skate where nobody gets to see how well he supposedly skated.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Everyone who competes at the Olympics "denies" other aspirants.

Plushenko, like Michelle Kwan in 2006, falls into that once-in-a-generation category of "dominant athlete." (This is the exact wording in the USFSA by-laws -- I don't know about Russia.) To unseat him, a younger claimant would have to leave no doubt. You can't dethrone the king with so-so.
 

Danibellerika

Medalist
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
It's not the 4th Olympic medal. It's the way he's gone about it. Particularly trashing his fellow compatriot and blaming him for one Olympic spot.

Not to mention claiming his right to skate in the Olympic team event ("I will do the team event") and essentially deny Kovtun Olympic experience and a guaranteed medal, even though he had just lost Nationals.

Plushenko has never come across to me as a PR darling, at least not by western standards. If he's impressed with you he'll praise you, if he's not he won't. He says what's truly on his mind. I seem to remember plenty of trash talking back and forth between him and Yagudin and that was a pretty bitter rivalry. Still is. People still love Nancy Kerrigan after she was a baby about getting a second Olympic Silver. Surya Bonaly is still pretty respected after her unsportsmanlike podium behavior.

Do people in Russia really give two flips about his comments? When the Olys come I fully expect Plush propaganda all over the place and deafening cheers when he takes the ice. And it will really be a matter of how much the media plans to report on it for the Olympics. Will NBC provide a big old fluff piece about it? We're just people on the forums who follow skating, a very small portion of the overall viewing audience who has any idea this is even going on. If he puts his money where his mouth is I assume he'll be praised. And if he's not so successful this time...well...down the road he'll still be called a 4-time olympic medallist.
 

meteorlight8

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
It's not the 4th Olympic medal. It's the way he's gone about it. Particularly trashing his fellow compatriot and blaming him for one Olympic spot.

Not to mention claiming his right to skate in the Olympic team event ("I will do the team event") and essentially deny Kovtun Olympic experience and a guaranteed medal, even though he had just lost Nationals.

Eh I see it as all part of the big Russian politiks ***********. After all, Kovtun changed his Twitter profile to say "Olympic Team Member" shortly after Russian Nationals (it somehow made sports news in China). Nobody involved has been all that clean or classy, so I'm just going to sit back on this one and have a chuckle.
 
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aschiutza

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
And who are you, that the russian Fed had to inform you and open the door for such thing or to establish how they have to decide?

Kovtun had also benefit last year for the way the russian Fed make their cards. This year all he has to do was to take a medal at Europeans. Did he? So if he didn't took one at the european in such a weak field, why do you think now would have had "guaranteed medal"? Because other in the team would have earned? Do you call this "deserved"?
 

AlexNY

Spectator
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Well, after following this forum for couple years ( with my friend) , I decided to join (independently) and here are my 2 cents.

First of all, about the rule (or I should say , ruling) on withdrawing after the team event. There was a special ISU decision ( on Jan. 10th) that many believed was heavily petitioned by the Russian FSF. There is a reason Plushenko made the initial statement about his participation in one event, but not the other. There is a reason why Tarasova was not part of the Plushenko’s test skating (since it all had been basically decided). And may be, there is a reason for a very flattering signature that Kovtun had on Twitter…

The ISU Communication # 1844 clearly outlines the application of the urgent medical reasons case for the Sochi OG. And yes, a team event participant – in case of an urgent medical reason, that can be proved by “ presence of a medical certificate” - can be replaced by a substitute.
“It is possible to make athletes replacements only up to and during the Team Leaders meeting for the Figure Skating (individual) events scheduled for 10.00 a.m. on February 10th, 2014”.

Men’s free skate for team events will be over by 8 PM on Feb. 09 – which leaves enough time for Team Plushenko to decide how to proceed. I mean, the guy has had so many injuries that any doctor would give him a medical certificate just on reading the malady list!

And we all know that the injuries that he has sustained are more than serious to be considered / to qualify as a urgent medical reason. And a good indicator would be if after Feb. 06th ( Team Men short program ) there are talks about Plushenko ‘s injury, re-injury, pain, etc.

Now, I have couple comments about the interview of Eteri Tutberidze as presented by plushyfan. Eteri is one of my favourite coaches, and after years of listening to /reading her interviews, I really like her work ethic.
She is one of those coaches that never makes any negative comments about other skaters ( or coaches, for that matter) and a very modest person at that.

To give just a part of her interview as a justification of Plushenko’s participation is totally unfair to her.
So, the reporter basically tried to get her opinion ( he even said that he would try to put the words the way so that he could get an answer).
And he said that “ many specialists stated that Plushenko got unreally high marks for his performance at the nationals; if the judging would have been correct, Voronov ( Eteri’s student) could have been second”… …

The most she could have said to that - when basically facing a question about her student being right now better than the king – well, she said what she said. There was some thinly veiled sarcasm, though when she said that Plushenko even now “ attempts to maintain the level”. The word “attempts” does not sound very favourable coming from Eteri...
( By the way, there was an article in one of the Russian newspapers yesterday questioning why Eteri does not fight for her students – the Mishin’s or Tarasova’s way. Well, this is her work ethic).

One more thing: not sure where the facts about the vast majority of Russians (that are happy with the decision) comes from. Actually, if you read any comments on this subject, the approval/disapproval is evenly split ( and google translate is not your best friend for this, since political correctness is not a guiding light for many of them and many comments would be lost in translation).

And yes, there is a petition – a leader of one of the parties in Duma ( the Russian Congress) sent an open letter to the Sport Minister voicing his opinion against Plushenko, calling his inclusion a result of “bureaucratic games”.
Please read the comments on this statement and see for yourself how many people support it.
 

aschiutza

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Everyone who competes at the Olympics "denies" other aspirants.

Plushenko, like Michelle Kwan in 2006, falls into that once-in-a-generation category of "dominant athlete." (This is the exact wording in the USFSA by-laws -- I don't know about Russia.) To unseat him, a younger claimant would have to leave no doubt. You can't dethrone the king with so-so.

You worded much better what i wanted to say.
 

Frenchie

I'm gonna customize the CRAP out of this title!
Medalist
Joined
May 4, 2013
And yes, there is a petition – a leader of one of the parties in Duma ( the Russian Congress) sent an open letter to the Sport Minister voicing his opinion against Plushenko, calling his inclusion a result of “bureaucratic games”.
Do you have a link?
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Regarding Plushenko's situation:
I could have sworn that I read that Cinquanta said in an interview during Euros that if a country is entitled to only one entry in a discipline, and the one entry withdraws during/after the Olympic team event, then the country is NOT allowed to have a replacement entry in the individual discipline.
[I don't know whether Cinquanta was answering a question about Plushenko in particular or a hypothetical query unattached to any one skater.]

Thanks golden411 for that likely explanation of what happened.
I wasn't aware those links had such an impact on the server, and I'll try to figure out how the multi-quote feature works.

I still hope that whenever anyone changes something in one of my posts in the future, I'll be informed of it and of the extent of the change.

EDIT: Should we (I!) generally refrain from embedding links in our posts? I thought I was being nice to others by hyperlinking the performances I enjoyed on yt instead of just citing them, unaware of technical repercussions on the forum's server. Should I go back and un-link those? (favorite Ladies SPs and FSs of all time)
ETA:
Eeek! Am just now realizing that you were referring to editing of your post that involved removing links???
So multi-quoting was not the issue. (I see now from earlier in the thread that you know perfectly well how to multi-quote.)
I should not have stuck my big fat nose into something I did not understand. I apologize. (And I've deleted from this post some additional stuff that I had said about multi-quoting.)
I have no idea whether including links has any kind of potential to cause server problems. Maybe so, maybe not???​

My experience when a mod has edited one of my posts:
Sometimes (more often than not, I would say) the mod's italicized annotation at the bottom of the post is the only notification/explanation. That annotation always has satisfied me, IIRC.
Once in a while (the exception rather than the rule), a mod also has sent me a brief PM to tell me a bit more.

Maybe the Feedback section already has a thread that explains more about moderating posts.
If not, and if you have a question, you could try starting a new thread there to ask it.
 

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Welcome to the forum :)
Is this political party interested in fighting for men's figure skating or Putin's Olympic Games? The petition is just not to send Plushenko , a la "anyone but Plush" petition, or to send a specific skater?

I ll start a petition for Menshov and his awesome Lp!!:cool:
 
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plushyfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Country
Hungary
s
Well, after following this forum for couple years ( with my friend) , I decided to join (independently) and here are my 2 cents.

First of all, about the rule (or I should say , ruling) on withdrawing after the team event. There was a special ISU decision ( on Jan. 10th) that many believed was heavily petitioned by the Russian FSF. There is a reason Plushenko made the initial statement about his participation in one event, but not the other. There is a reason why Tarasova was not part of the Plushenko’s test skating (since it all had been basically decided). And may be, there is a reason for a very flattering signature that Kovtun had on Twitter…

The ISU Communication # 1844 clearly outlines the application of the urgent medical reasons case for the Sochi OG. And yes, a team event participant – in case of an urgent medical reason, that can be proved by “ presence of a medical certificate” - can be replaced by a substitute.
“It is possible to make athletes replacements only up to and during the Team Leaders meeting for the Figure Skating (individual) events scheduled for 10.00 a.m. on February 10th, 2014”.

Men’s free skate for team events will be over by 8 PM on Feb. 09 – which leaves enough time for Team Plushenko to decide how to proceed. I mean, the guy has had so many injuries that any doctor would give him a medical certificate just on reading the malady list!

And we all know that the injuries that he has sustained are more than serious to be considered / to qualify as a urgent medical reason. And a good indicator would be if after Feb. 06th ( Team Men short program ) there are talks about Plushenko ‘s injury, re-injury, pain, etc.

Now, I have couple comments about the interview of Eteri Tutberidze as presented by plushyfan. Eteri is one of my favourite coaches, and after years of listening to /reading her interviews, I really like her work ethic.
She is one of those coaches that never makes any negative comments about other skaters ( or coaches, for that matter) and a very modest person at that.

To give just a part of her interview as a justification of Plushenko’s participation is totally unfair to her.
So, the reporter basically tried to get her opinion ( he even said that he would try to put the words the way so that he could get an answer).
And he said that “ many specialists stated that Plushenko got unreally high marks for his performance at the nationals; if the judging would have been correct, Voronov ( Eteri’s student) could have been second”… …

The most she could have said to that - when basically facing a question about her student being right now better than the king – well, she said what she said. There was some thinly veiled sarcasm, though when she said that Plushenko even now “ attempts to maintain the level”. The word “attempts” does not sound very favourable coming from Eteri...
( By the way, there was an article in one of the Russian newspapers yesterday questioning why Eteri does not fight for her students – the Mishin’s or Tarasova’s way. Well, this is her work ethic).

One more thing: not sure where the facts about the vast majority of Russians (that are happy with the decision) comes from. Actually, if you read any comments on this subject, the approval/disapproval is evenly split ( and google translate is not your best friend for this, since political correctness is not a guiding light for many of them and many comments would be lost in translation).

And yes, there is a petition – a leader of one of the parties in Duma ( the Russian Congress) sent an open letter to the Sport Minister voicing his opinion against Plushenko, calling his inclusion a result of “bureaucratic games”.
Please read the comments on this statement and see for yourself how many people support it.

Do you talking about Zhirinovky? OMG! He is a stupid ultra nationalist politician, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhirinovsky who hates the gays, the figure skating. He was angry with Plushy because he did his surgery in Israel..he is an anti-zionist..Isn't a good supporter for Kovtun..:DDD

Plushy won the voting. The russians wanted to him for flag bearers. Pushy won a voting, the Russians want to see him in Sochi. Plushenko was the athlets of the year in 2013. He didn't compete and he beat Isinbaeva who was world champion again..

http://evgeni-plushenko.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6&start=2700 read it

http://evgeni-plushenko.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=268&p=81909&hilit=lady#p81909 the whole Eteri's interview

and an older interview of her http://evgeni-plushenko.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6&p=79790&hilit=tutberidze#p79790
 

aschiutza

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
I really really hope, of Russian Fed choose tomorrow Kovtun, that people who now support him will still support him at the olympics and are not showing now support only because they don't want Plushenko.

But i am sure, that next year most on this forum will see only the bad sides of Kovtun's skating and complain about his PCS and when a new face will come will abandon him for the new comer.
 

Frenchie

I'm gonna customize the CRAP out of this title!
Medalist
Joined
May 4, 2013
Once in a while (the exception rather than the rule), a mod also has sent me a brief PM to tell me a bit more.

Thanks! I haven't heard from seniorita who edited my post, but Mathman was kind enough to send me a pm to explain the technical aspects of it all. :agree:
 
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