Interview with Rafael Arutyunian

You know what gripes me.......when Ashley bests 2 of the Russian girls someone has to come in and say they beat themselves. God forbid you should ever give Ash the respect that she flat out-skated them. And it's amazing to me how an interview gets so twisted by interpretation. Where did RA say Lip was a has-been! And the comment that someone should tell him what Lip is going through. Is she the only one that gets a pass because she's having a difficult year? Yet Gracie is sliced, diced and criticized from every angle possible. Same with Ashley. Man there's a double-standard in here.

I actually have to say that I agree with Rafael: as he said, when I watch Liza, all I can think is "this is SO Mishin style"; Gachinski, Petrov: they all have very very similar styles, and that's because of the influence of their coach. The same thing can be said about Julia and Medvedeva, too. There is this kind of influence in western countries, too, but not as much as in the case of these young Russiang girls. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't appreciate their programs/personality etc. because they have a lot of wonderful qualities, it is just an aspect of how they develop as skaters

noskates said:

You know what gripes me.......when Ashley bests 2 of the Russian girls someone has to come in and say they beat themselves. God forbid you should ever give Ash the respect that she flat out-skated them. And it's amazing to me how an interview gets so twisted by interpretation. Where did RA say Lip was a has-been! And the comment that someone should tell him what Lip is going through. Is she the only one that gets a pass because she's having a difficult year? Yet Gracie is sliced, diced and criticized from every angle possible. Same with Ashley. Man there's a double-standard in here.

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But it's true...people have been saying it over and over again. The only way Wagner will podium is if other skaters implode, and two did at GPF.

Oh dear, what have I done?

Let's see. Ashley's results last season were 193.81-194.37-193.20-193.16, very consistent on a 190+ level. In this season so far she scored 186.00-177.74-189.50. She hasn't cracked the 190 yet, meaning that she actually dropped a little, but in the GPF she came closer to her previous top level than before.

Julia had 198.23-190.80-192.07-200.57-207.50 last season and 173.57-185.18-177.79 this season. Sharp drop, much more massive than Ashley. Her once pretty consistent jumps are all but gone.

Anna scored 178.62-184.69-171.88-197.50 as a newcomer last season. Now she had 191.81-193.43-180.29. Since worlds she was about to establish herself as another 190+ skater until messing up the GPF. In fact Anna did on average better this season than Ashley and Julia did. Where she goes from here remains to be seen.

In short, Ashley had a minor drop this season, Julia a major one and Anna was on the rise until a major set-back in the GPF. Ashley benefitted decisively from substandard performances of the others. There is no sign that she improved her own results and pushed her PB so much that the other ladies were overpowered beyond their personal limits. And that would be my definition of "outskating" them. If you want to see outskating ladies you better look at Liza and Elena who reached a new personal level that only Julia had been able to match before.

lilahozi said:

But it's true...people have been saying it over and over again. The only way Wagner will podium is if other skaters implode, and two did at GPF.

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just wanted to note that Ashley has the third highest free skate of the season after Elena and Liza... not too shabby for someone who can only podium if other mess up

TheCzar said:

But it is Mishin's success though. Who do you think got Liza through her growing pains? Yes, her struggles and overcoming it is a success for her, but it was Mishin's method (whatever he devised for Tuk's recovery and sustainability) that was at play here.

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Noone is saying Mishin didn't play an important part, I for one am a big fan of Papa Mishin but Arutyunian's statement was "it’s not so much her achievement as it is of Alexey Mishin", which is wrong. They BOTH contributed greatly to her recovery.

FSGMT said:

I actually have to say that I agree with Rafael: as he said, when I watch Liza, all I can think is "this is SO Mishin style"; Gachinski, Petrov: they all have very very similar styles, and that's because of the influence of their coach. The same thing can be said about Julia and Medvedeva, too. There is this kind of influence in western countries, too, but not as much as in the case of these young Russiang girls. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't appreciate their programs/personality etc. because they have a lot of wonderful qualities, it is just an aspect of how they develop as skaters

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I think that's because on average, skaters in North America don't stay with the same coaches as long as most Russian skaters do. Yulia has been with Eteri 5-6 years, Medvedeva a year more. Petrov's very first coach was Mishin's wife (so at least 8 years in camp Mishin, if not more), Gachinski Mishin coached from age 8, Liza from age 11.

I think Wagner's camp don't like Yulia too much... i remember Ashley anger as she got her score in the singles SP, saying something like she deserved a better score than Lips because she gave a clean performance. And recently she gave a interview saying that how young skaters can skate to love stories when they are too young too ever have lived one and of course Yulia's LP is Romeo and Juliet...

The things there are not as good as in Russia or Japan... The rinks in the USA must be full - it’s a given. The limit of the skaters on the ice at once is 20. It’s too much for the sport.

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Well, now we see where Ashley got her ideas how wonderful conditions are in Russia and how handicapped she is by not getting enough ice time.

jace93 said:

just wanted to note that Ashley has the third highest free skate of the season after Elena and Liza... not too shabby for someone who can only podium if other mess up

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Thank you Jace!!!!

Russia is not Moscow only.

Liza lived in Glazov until she turned 14, it's 27 hour train ride to St Petersburg, where she traveled every fortnight to train with Mishin.
There was only one ice rink in Glazov, and everyone skated there: figure skaters, hockey players, general public. There was so little ice, it was a catastrophe. But we worked a lot off-ice, and I could jump very high. I guess Alexei Nikolaevich decided to see what could come of me. He offered to come practice with him. And it turned out that I'm a rather quick learner, that I have more or less graceful arms and I can skate a little."
After the first trip to St Petersburg it became clear that I needed to practice more seriously. We worked with Svetlana Mikhailovna (Veretennikova) in Glazov, we even started getting more ice time. The rest of the time we spent at Yubileyny ice rink. It was rather hard. We lived in a dormitory and at the hotel. The dormitory was even more convenient. There was a kitchen and we could make a proper breakfast. But the hardest part, of course, was being away from family, from my parents."

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We always choose the music together with coaches and choreographers, because, fortunately, my coaches understand that it's me who is going to be skating the program and I cannot do it if I don't like the music. I got hooked up on acoustic rock lately, I'm a big fan of Guns'n'Roses. I even think of using one of their songs for one of my future programs. Alexei Nikolaevich knows about that and he even got me tickets for their concert at Yubileyny.

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http://prosport-online.ru/articles/tukhtamysheva226