Elena Ilinykh & Nikita Katsalapov Split

surimi said:

Vilify implies unjustly making a villain out of someone, doesn't it? But, as Bekalc states, noone here knows the real situation. Therefore those who condemn S/K for their conduct, may just as well be right. As most of them have repeatedly said, this is not about the split, but about the manner of it and about their current attitude. Based on the interviews posted here, S/K both sound to me like ruthless, classless, inconsiderate -and in K's case also conceited- people, acting like their previous partners and coaches wronged them horribly enough to warrant pretending they no longer exist. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but it seems clear they don't have one positive word to say about I and Z or any of the coaches, never offered any explanation or thanks to any of them, and just stopped communicating with all of them, out of the blue. I don't feel like I'm jumping to a conclusion when I find the image of them I've so far felt from the interviews, plain and simple repulsive.

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First of all, where did they stop communicating with them out of the blue. Your putting a lot into that. So what if they don't want to go into the media with their reasons. Doesn't mean they stopped talking to their partners out of the blue. Where exactly do you get that.

Elena said that Nikita thanked her for their time together and said he wanted to leave. And Victoria's coach mentioned that She said it was for personal reasons, and in the interview said that they her and the coach were on good terms. The impression given that the coach knew about the possibility for awhile.

Maybe the two of them don't want to go into this major media thing about why they left.

I'd rather have people NOT talk about their personal reasons for leaving a partnership than to go into a media explanation of why. I thought the Trankov/Maria split where Trankov and Oleg traded barbs in the press made all three of them look horrific.

And my understanding is Nikita on formspring said that he and Elena had personal issues, blame him for most if you want. And he wishes her and her partner well. What more do you want. Maybe too they don't want to go into anymore of it until the federation allows them to have his new partnerships.

To answer your question yes, I did quit a job before finding another one. Nothing wrong to search first for a new job than quit, but this is not the same thing with I&K split anyway.
This was a partnership. In a partnership there are two people involved, and to take your example, do you search for a new partner without telling anything to the one you have?

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Its not a personal dating relationship. ITs a business partnership. Which makes it more akin to a job employment than it does to an dating relationship.

bekalc said:

And my understanding is Nikita on formspring said that he and Elena had personal issues, blame him for most if you want. And he wishes her and her partner well. What more do you want. Maybe too they don't want to go into anymore of it until the federation allows them to have his new partnerships.

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That formspring was a fake account, it was one of the things Nikita threw a fit over in his twitter "you wish you had my life" rant. He has said nothing about Elena in public since Worlds.

kittyvondutch said:

he makes it sound as if Victoria was completely clueless before him and now she is out of this world skater because she is with him. God, he is just all about himself. Ego doesn't work well in sports, he should know that by now!

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This. This was Elena's weakness, she didn't know how to just grin and bear with him. They have probably had some very heated arguments in their past. Judging by what I've seen with how he interacted with Zhulin and Morozov, he liked to dictate how all should be done. So I am really glad that he has found his utopia. Now my only wish is that I/Z not be given the shaft.

And bye the bye, no one here needs either of them to disclose their personal reasons for leaving their former business partners. They are public sports figures, one pair being Olympic medalists; we had just hoped that in the spirit of fair play and goodwill they would show some public respect to their former partners. Nothing more.

uhh said:

That formspring was a fake account, it was one of the things Nikita threw a fit over in his twitter "you wish you had my life" rant. He has said nothing about Elena in public since Worlds.

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And that's fine with me. I think its better to not say anything to get into why he left. And he has every right to be angry about fake accounts.

I am going to say this how many of you read Russian and can so really understand the tone of the articles. I don't see Nikita saying Victoria's a beginner. He never said he didn't have to work anything. Rather the guy was just trying to praise his new partner's attitude about improvement/hard work.

Second, we don't know when I/K made the plans for next season. I think I/K seem to have a very up and down relationship. And its possible that Nikita was thinking HE would commit at the time, and then there was some kind of final straw.

Where I stand in this is, is simple. None of us are there every day for a relationship or now everything that went down. So why jump into so and so's behavior was bad or out of the norm.

Seems to me Nikita planned a quiet break up after worlds like a lot of people have.

And bye the bye, no one here needs either of them to disclose their personal reasons for leaving their former business partners. They are public sports figures, one pair being Olympic medalists; we had just hoped that in the spirit of fair play and goodwill they would show some public respect to their former partners. Nothing more.

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But why is saying nothing giving public disrespect. Its possible he doesn't want to say Elena and I had personal issues. Plus he has the federation furious about the break up, and he probably doesn't want to while they are still deliberating, go out there and say Elena is this wonderful thing. Maybe after time is past and he and Victoria are established, he will go out there and give a little more of an explanation.

But I think saying nothing is better than saying something. I'm not a fan of I left but only because this person did this awful thing and that awful thing. I actually prefer people who keep their personal problems with others between them and the person they have the problems with.

bekalc said:

And that's fine with me. I think its better to not say anything to get into why he left. And he has every right to be angry about fake accounts.

I am going to say this how many of you read Russian and can so really understand the tone of the articles. I don't see Nikita saying Victoria's a beginner. He never said he didn't have to work anything. Rather the guy was just trying to praise his new partner's attitude about improvement/hard work.

Second, we don't know when I/K made the plans for next season. I think I/K seem to have a very up and down relationship. And its possible that Nikita was thinking HE would commit at the time, and then there was some kind of final straw.

Where I stand in this is, is simple. None of us are there every day for a relationship or now everything that went down. So why jump into so and so's behavior was bad or out of the norm.

Seems to me Nikita planned a quiet break up after worlds like a lot of people have.

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"Behind every successful (handsome, charismatic man) there is always a woman who will love him blindly. But successful women pay a price for their success. It is rare that men and women will not betray her"

Lena has to learn how to internalize these views and to play the part of the "docile but intelligent fawn" tactfully. It will not be easy. There seems to be nothing more intimidating than an exceptional woman. The thing isn't that Lena looked "older" in a pair with Nikita but rather more mature and intelligent. Zueva was just playing politics. I hope her and Ruslan can find that right balance, because he seems like a classy guy.

surimi said:

As most of them have repeatedly said, this is not about the split, but about the manner of it and about their current attitude. Based on the interviews posted here, S/K both sound to me like ruthless, classless, inconsiderate -and in K's case also conceited- people, acting like their previous partners and coaches wronged them horribly enough to warrant pretending they no longer exist. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but it seems clear they don't have one positive word to say about I and Z or any of the coaches, never offered any explanation or thanks to any of them, and just stopped communicating with all of them, out of the blue. I don't feel like I'm jumping to a conclusion when I find the image of them I've so far felt from the interviews, plain and simple repulsive.

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What I don't understand is how a journalist can't ask a question about why they break up? For me that was not a interview, that was only a advertisement. And I agree with you this made them look even worse than before.

Lenchik said:

About deliberate act or smith...sounds nasty in English , was not in an actual interview, have to admit, though I am all for Elena (-:

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the translation in English dictionary is deliberate = well-considered = he simply thought about it for long, it was not one second decision...

sisinka said:

the translation in English dictionary is deliberate = well-considered = he simply thought about it for long, it was not one second decision...

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In an odd way that sounds just as bad. So really at world championships that was just another random mistake from Nik? There is almost no WC where he hasn't made a very costly mistake on either the SD or FD? His defenders are right, its best he remain silent, he must do all the talking on ice.

OTOH very excited to see the new pairs. Need to put unpleasant exchanges aside and watch great skating

bekalc said:

Once again, we don't know that the other partners don't have try outs before breaking up their partnerships. Did anyone say they didn't. If your going to criticize Nikita for lining up a partner first, I have one question. Do you quit your job before finding another job? Or get a new job first than quit.

As for him saying earlier he wanted to go with Elena to 2018 Olympics. Maybe he meant that when he said it. Maybe he thought things were getting better and something went down and he decided against it. It happens.

At the end of the day I feel jumping and vilifying any of them is unfair. We don't know the situation.

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I don't buy this "maybe he meant that when he said he wanted to go with Elena to 2018..". Because in interview he said " it was a well thought through decision".

On the other hand, I feel that I/Z team, including their coaches, are not as strategic as S/K team. They gave an impression that I/Z are leftovers but are doing fine. But S/K team mostly thanks to Zueva's politiking skill, make me feel that they are controlling the situation and timing. Of course I hope I/Z will be more successful.

http://instagram.com/p/onyYNjqBm4/

Who is this guy?

elif said:

http://instagram.com/p/onyYNjqBm4/

Who is this guy?

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they are adorable and I wish them the best in their new partnership!

elif said:

http://instagram.com/p/onyYNjqBm4/

Who is this guy?

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I like that they get along well. But hope they don't show too much off ice, non-training photos.

Kitt said:

they are adorable and I wish them the best in their new partnership!

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If he is Ruslan (I'm still not sure) he should wear suits all the time He looks sophisticated :think:

I think Kustarova's PR has been excellent so far in that they have the majority of the fan sympathy and support. SK may look really good but a lot if fans refuse to root for them given the way the split went down. Elena was perceived before as a diva with bad training habits who is banging her coach. Now she's a heartbroken young woman trying to pick up the pieces. Ruslan is seen as the loyal partner callously dumped by his beautiful partner who was looking for an upgrade. He might have his own personal issues (kustarova even once said that he can be emotional and Vika calmed him down). but he has a lot of fan support.

bekalc said:

And that's fine with me. I think its better to not say anything to get into why he left. And he has every right to be angry about fake accounts.

I am going to say this how many of you read Russian and can so really understand the tone of the articles. I don't see Nikita saying Victoria's a beginner. He never said he didn't have to work anything. Rather the guy was just trying to praise his new partner's attitude about improvement/hard work.

Second, we don't know when I/K made the plans for next season. I think I/K seem to have a very up and down relationship. And its possible that Nikita was thinking HE would commit at the time, and then there was some kind of final straw.

Where I stand in this is, is simple. None of us are there every day for a relationship or now everything that went down. So why jump into so and so's behavior was bad or out of the norm.

Seems to me Nikita planned a quiet break up after worlds like a lot of people have.



But why is saying nothing giving public disrespect. Its possible he doesn't want to say Elena and I had personal issues. Plus he has the federation furious about the break up, and he probably doesn't want to while they are still deliberating, go out there and say Elena is this wonderful thing. Maybe after time is past and he and Victoria are established, he will go out there and give a little more of an explanation.

But I think saying nothing is better than saying something. I'm not a fan of I left but only because this person did this awful thing and that awful thing. I actually prefer people who keep their personal problems with others between them and the person they have the problems with.

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I totally agree with your point of view.

Abraxis12345 said:

I think Kustarova's PR has been excellent so far in that they have the majority of the fan sympathy and support. SK may look really good but a lot if fans refuse to root for them given the way the split went down. Elena was perceived before as a diva with bad training habits who is banging her coach. Now she's a heartbroken young woman trying to pick up the pieces. Ruslan is seen as the loyal partner callously dumped by his beautiful partner who was looking for an upgrade. He might have his own personal issues (kustarova even once said that he can be emotional and Vika calmed him down). but he has a lot of fan support.

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And we are here writing drama. seriously I have no problem with their split. I have no idea why Nikita acted the way he did, kinda coward but it's okay if he doesn't want to say anything, it's his choice. Nevertheless, I have little interest in Vic after knowing what she said to her coach and Ruslan, quite disrespectful.:disapp:

bekalc said:

Once again, we don't know that the other partners don't have try outs before breaking up their partnerships. Did anyone say they didn't. If your going to criticize Nikita for lining up a partner first, I have one question. Do you quit your job before finding another job? Or get a new job first than quit.

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Examples of Alba and Uhh – I fully agree with this.

I will try to give an example from job environment.
You have two people and their boss to work in Team A on Project A. Another two people with boss working in Team B on Project B. All people in both teams are needed, one human one out and Project would crash. Secretly a man from Team A and a woman from Team B make a decision to make Team C and to work on Project C. They both know that this decision will destroy Project A and B (and long time work of other people and their bosses too), but they don’t care. Even in moment when rumour about their behaviour appears publicly, the man and the woman are lying that everything is OK. But some days later the man and the woman leave without an explanation. But not oficially, so next one and half months both Team A and B must wait how their future will look like, of course they could try to start another Project D creating another Team D but because they don’t know whether the man and the woman come back or not, they stay in vacuum.

Btw I don’t know where are you from, but in my country there are some rules. One of them is that your boss must know all jobs and all companies you work with. Kustarova didn’t know and Morozov had a wrong info about another company then he supposed. Also there is no possibility to spend some day in new work for just try-out and they to come back to old work or only after it to finish old work. Once you enter a company and spend a working day there, then you are worker in that company.
Just to look for any similarity with job.

bekalc said:

As for him saying earlier he wanted to go with Elena to 2018 Olympics. Maybe he meant that when he said it. Maybe he thought things were getting better and something went down and he decided against it. It happens.

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Nikita himself admits in last interview that he thought about it longer, so it was not just “one moment decision“. And having try-out after the Olympics speaks for itself as well.

bekalc said:

And Victoria's coach mentioned that She said it was for personal reasons, and in the interview said that they her and the coach were on good terms.

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I was looking for that note and I didn't find it, Alexeeva told that they were in good terms, but on the contraty she told she didn't understand the split.
Could you find an interview where coaches told it????
I have a strong feeling that "personal reasons" were just one of quotes from fans.

bekalc said:

First of all, where did they stop communicating with them out of the blue. Your putting a lot into that. So what if they don't want to go into the media with their reasons. Doesn't mean they stopped talking to their partners out of the blue. Where exactly do you get that.

Maybe the two of them don't want to go into this major media thing about why they left.

I'd rather have people NOT talk about their personal reasons for leaving a partnership than to go into a media explanation of why. I thought the Trankov/Maria split where Trankov and Oleg traded barbs in the press made all three of them look horrific.

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One thing is to speak to public, another thing is to make everything clear and explain their partners, coaches and Federation. Nothing was really explained to their former teams. You can see it from an interviews. Also some people who says they are close to Lena told that she was waiting a long time that Nikita would come back…she wouldn’t wait if he gave her 100% affirmation about his plans. It even took a half month after World Champs until Nikita and Victoria wrote a letter to Russian Federation about their plans. But if you don’t want to believe those writers, OK, so facts….

28th of March…http://www.sports.ru/others/figure-skating/159008925.html where Ruslan’s sister Nelli tells that her brother didn’t know anything, but some Russian skaters told him about a split info, Nelli says that Ruslan lives through it with difficulty, but he wants to concentrate for fight at competition.

29th of March… http://itar-tass.com/sport/1082977…Victoria is asked if they know anything about a split and new coupling: “We don’t know anything about it. We were preparing for World Champs and we didn’t know about it.“ Ruslan: “We will train until May.“

30th of March… http://itar-tass.com/sport/1084552... Nikita’s interview after gala: “We didn’t discuss future plans yet, I want to take a rest, so I will ask for giving me at least five days of holidays.“

3rd of April…http://www.team-russia2014.ru/article/16712.html…Alexeeva talks about plans for Viki and Ruslan, she doesn’t know about a split.

4th of April…http://rsport.ru/figure_skating/20140407/741387775.html where Lena says that Nikita came to her, thanked her for cooperation and told that he wouldn’t skate with her more.

7th of April…http://www.team-russia2014.ru/article/16757.html…where Alexeeva says that if anybody wants to know a reason of split, then he/she had to ask Nikita and Vika. “I don’t understand what happened. Sinitsina took her things from an ice rink and announced that she would skate with Katsalapov…“

7th of April…http://itar-tass.com/sport/1102184 where Kustarova says that they are waiting for Viki and Nikita’s decision because they (Viki and Nikita) have to solve. Kustarova says that their (her, Lena and Ruslan) opinion don’t mean anything, they are in inferior position, but they want everything to be solved fast.

11th of April… http://itar-tass.com/sport/1114877 where Alexander Gorshkov says that at Friday both Victoria and Nikita turn to Russian Federation with idea of skating together.

13th of April…http://rsport.ru/figure_skating/20140413/742845516.html where Zueva confirms that a couple arrives today.

22th of April…http://www.sports.ru/others/figure-skating/1020033869.html… Alexander Gorshkov says that a new Ilinykh’s partner will be known in a one month.

24th of April…http://www.sports.ru/others/figure-skating/1020079792.html…Russian Federation‘s meeting…they don’t support a split if I&K and S&Z.

This all shows that nobody from a team Lena & Ruslan & Kustarova & Alexeeva knew what was going to happen. Even one word that Victoria and Nikita would explain anything to them. NOT to public, but TO THEM, to people who were a part of the former team. On the contrary Alexeeva doesn’t understand the reason for a split, Kustarova wants Vika and Nikita to say what is happening and solve things.
Also Ruslan’s behaviour is far to somebody who got an explanations. He visibly refused to talk to the press, but it was him who re-tweeted on his page an interview where Alexeeva told that no split / no changes are planned (from 3rd of April). He is not that stupid to do that if he knew about Victoria leaving him.

So it looks like Victoria and Nikita didn’t explain to ANYONE, even to people who had to know the reason, which is also poor behaviour, because thanks to it both Lena and Ruslan were stopped by Russian Federation because theoretically there was still a hope that Nikita will come back to Lena. And Nikita helped that idea as much as possible. He never told oficially that he wanted to split, he never told anything on 100%, so Russian Federation could secretly hope for a miracle for one and half month. And Lena and Ruslan had to wait for whole time….classy from Nikita? Not really.

Nikita noticed that after two weeks of practises with Vika, all specialists were so satisfied. He told that he felt it was right decision since first moment when they arrived in US. Really? So why didn’t he tell the press and mainly to Russian Federation that he is sure of everything? Imagine...Nikita confirming his decision on 100% to split with Lena and start skating with Viki - Russian Federation would stop to block Lena & Ruslan and they would be free to make a couple much sooner without a stress who they will be allowed to skate with. But no, Nikita knew his final decision since first moment in US, but he was patiently waiting until 29th of May to announce it. Kustarova / Alexeeva noticed that they need Victoria and Nikita’s confirmation to make plans for future (if they needed a confirmation, it means they didn’t get it until that moment, right?). So Nikita and Victoria blocked their ex coaches work as well. Classy? No.

bekalc said:

Where I stand in this is, is simple. None of us are there every day for a relationship or now everything that went down. So why jump into so and so's behavior was bad or out of the norm.

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Nobody from us saw them 24 hours a day, even Morozov, yes. But we don’t discuss all days and situations which took Nikita to a split. We discuss what happened after it…and this is perfectly shown in media. Since the rumour about a split started, all important steps of those four skaters and their coaches got big attention and were described in a press…and Victoria and Nikita’s behaviour plus behaviour of Russian Federation AFTER a rumour is what people don’t like and criticise.