Plushenko interview on Russian championship judging

[brakes]

Despite landing three quads and 3A, Veronika Zhilina got only silver, while Sofia Titova with two quads and two 3As took only fourth place at 2023 Russian Junior Championships in Perm today.
Their coach, Evgeni Plushenko expressed his utter disappointment and skaters' plans to change sporting citizenship in seek for fair treatment.

He's been noticing unfairness of domestic judging against his school for at least 2-3 years, had taken steps against it (talking with judges, federation officials), but nothing has changed since then. Reportedly, after being warned about the matter and skaters' growing willingness to switch the flag, one of the officials replied: "go ahead". Plushenko also brought up Alexandra Trusova's 2021 Nats performance and score as another example of bias.
He said skaters had been offered citizenship by multiple countries and while he had been trying to deter them so far, in present circumstances he's going to support them by beginning talks with federation upon his return to Moscow.




Translation from fs-gossips.com:

Evgeni Plushenko: I have the following situation, a statement: for some reason, my athletes who do ultra-c are given much lower points. That is, the judges give lower GOE, but the jumps are excellent. Super. If someone else did them, for example, they would give completely different points. I looked at printouts, points were much higher. For example, if my athletes have any endges, the judges immediately see that. Other athletes – they do not see. This has been going on for several seasons. What’s this? I spoke with the judges, with the federation, I said, “Look. Why are you judging me harshly? Judge everyone equally.” We are for justice. If a girl pops a jump, she gets +2, and when mine does the same, she gets -4. Why? Why is such prejudice? Where’s the justice? For the second year, I have been telling athletes about this, warning, reminding them. Everyone in the federation says that everything is fine, everything is great. Again no. I endured, endured, but today we talked with the athletes, with the parents. Most likely, there will be transfers of many skaters to other countries. Those who are judged unfairly. Because why should the guys also fight for justice? And should I fight? I’m tired. If the federation does not need us, my athletes, then we will go where we are needed.
This is not for the first season. This has been building up for a long time. If you look now, people win with one quadruple. I don’t want to offend anyone. But one quad versus four ultra-c. Well, what are we doing? Same that happened to me and Lysacek? Where is he now? Where? What? Trusova skated, moved figure skating forward and lost the Olympics. She trained with me, jumped four ultra-c. But we don’t need it, we need ballet. I understand that you need to skate beautifully, spin, I understand everything perfectly. But you also need to move forward.
If you take Nika (Zhilina), she skates consistently, doing several quads this year. Same for Titova – three ultra-c. Yes, there is a gap after a short program. But judge each athlete fairly. If you see my skater has a wrong edge, call it, no problem. You see the other has it too, but do not call. Today the girl with two under-rotated quads is on the podium. One got one carrot, and the other didn’t. That’s the difference between third and fourth place. And I’m also offended, the athlete, parents. When they close their eyes on others, but open them on me. I do not want to cooperate, move forward. How can I stop them when such a solution boiled up? It means that someone has set a task. The Federation says, “Go away, it’s okay.” Great, very cool. Upon arrival, I will communicate with the Ministry of Sports, with the Russian Olympic Committee, with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Difficult times, we must unite, raise each other. But we have conflict after conflict. I am a non-confrontational person. But when they tick me off… Yana and I are building a school, but here it’s knowingly: “Ah, Plushenko’s Angels” … I got tired.

 

[yume]

Plushy is really funny.

Please, his skaters are well scored, especially since 2021-2022 season, nationally and internationally. Otherwise Muravieva wouldn't be getting those PCS and being held up at some comps like last year junior nats. Zhilina and Titova got huge scores at cup stages. But he seems to forget the mistakes both skaters did in both programs at junior nats.
What i like is that it isn't even an Eteri's girl who won, she didn't even got one on podium. It's instead a girl from a barely known coach who won. So he can't use the blatant favoritism toward Eteri's camp card.

That said i'm not against his skaters switching countries.

 

[Skatelife]

They lost in the short, unfortunately for them, there are two segments, and they have to deliver in both, Alina is the right winner.
Anyways I'm happy for Veronica she had a very good FS onlywith minors mistakes

 

[JimR]

I thought Zhilina and Titova both got mushroomed for components. Zhilina's jumps are so impressive though (when she actually lands them that is).

Zhilina is another Trusova she'll need 5 clean quads in 2026 to beat Sofia or Kami. She might do it, but only 1 of 10 times she skates. Even then, will she retain these jumps if has a difficult puberty like Kamila.

It's the Trusova approach to skating and it's never really worked.

 

[brakes]

Plushy is really funny.

Please, his skaters are well scored, especially since 2021-2022 season, nationally and internationally. Otherwise Muravieva wouldn't be getting those PCS and being held up at some comps like last year junior nats. Zhilina and Titova got huge scores at cup stages. But he seems to forget the mistakes both skaters did in both programs at junior nats.
What i like is that it isn't even an Eteri's girl who won, she didn't even got one on podium. It's instead a girl from a barely known coach who won. So he can't use the blatant favoritism toward Eteri's camp card.

That said i'm not against his skaters switching countries.

I think Muravieva is pretty good performer with nice skating skills deserving good artistic score, Zhilina and Titova are pretty weak skaters outside the jumps and very PCS-overscored.

 

[Amei]

Zhilina needs a coach/mentor
that can help her nerves, the last several years at the 2 big events for her, the Cup Final and junior nationals she has 1 segment where she performs poorly, she gets saved in final placement because she has high BV elements.

 

[AlexBreeze]

I don't understand where they are getting the numbers from. Titova said that she had scored 146 before (when?). Plushenko said that other skaters received +2 for pops, but his skaters -4 (who? when?).

 

[yume]

I think Muravieva is pretty good performer with nice skating skills deserving good artistic score, Zhilina and Titova are pretty weak skaters outside the jumps and very PCS-overscored.

Mura deserves high PCS when clean. But she would be getting PCS in low 30s and high 60s if her camp was a victim of unfairness, as her coach claims.

 

[brakes]

Zhilina needs a coach/mentor
that can help her nerves, the last several years at the 2 big events for her, the Cup Final and junior nationals she has 1 segment where she performs poorly, she gets saved in final placement because she has high BV elements.

The girl just can't deliver a performance up to her amazing athletic talent, quite troubling to watch. She needs some kind of impulse/influence, but I doubt Plushy's outburst is exactly that.

 

[Skatelife]

Sure, it was a good skate for her, she could manage her nerves, it's better than have a meltdown.
People tend to be a very harsh critic with Russian ladies, it seems they are total failure, the spectating is always higher than any other competition even worlds, but at the end Veronica is a junior with a lot of potential, she is still developing.

 

[icybear]

I only clicked on this thread cause I thought Plushenko had exploded like how the characters exploded in the end of the movie Ready or not. Also I would love if Sofia Muravieva switched countries. She could easily sweep a season's grand slam given the stagnant state of international women's FS at the moment.

 

[Amei]

The girl just can't deliver a performance up to her amazing athletic talent, quite troubling to watch. She needs some kind of impulse/influence, but I doubt Plushy's outburst is exactly that.

Well she's got 2 big items really to work on: being able to consistently deliver her tech content clean or mostly clean to "live up" to her athletic talent and secondly she needs to grow/improve her interpretation so she isn't ride or die by her jumps, which may come as she gets a little older. she had very mature programs this year that swallowed her a bit, the optimist in me says they were trying to stretch her artistically, the pessimist says they were using big music to try and carry her.

 

[JimR]

Clear attitude problem at Pluskenko's academy, Titova pulling faces when her score was announced, Zhilina not congratulating Gorbacheva, then Plushenko after all the money his wife is given by the state for her shows he threatens to take move his skaters to another country if they aren't gifted gold medals.

 

[pearly]

I thought Zhilina and Titova both got mushroomed for components. Zhilina's jumps are so impressive though (when she actually lands them that is).

Zhilina is another Trusova she'll need 5 clean quads in 2026 to beat Sofia or Kami. She might do it, but only 1 of 10 times she skates. Even then, will she retain these jumps if has a difficult puberty like Kamila.

It's the Trusova approach to skating and it's never really worked.

Kami? As in Valieva? In 2026? Unlikely. (I don't know who the others are or how old they are now.)

 

[JimR]

Kami? As in Valieva? In 2026? Unlikely. (I don't know who the others are or how old they are now.)

Sure. 2030 too.

 

[mrrice]

I don't know exactly what is going here so, I'm not going offer an opinion. I will say, that Plushy was one of the nicest skaters we met at Worlds in 2001. Even backstage he was nice to all of us. He spoke very clear English and was light and fun. All the Russian skaters were very nice. Plus that Pair Skater Anton Sikharulidze was so handsome. He took my breath away....

 

[Corwin]

For him and for Yana, money is everything. Filthy personalities..

 

[katymay]

I didn't see any bias towards his skaters, but in the SP I felt Labutina and Anastasia M. (Yes, she fell on her combo, but...) were lowballed. A couple of years ago it was Gorbecheva who was constantly lowballed. She was kind of a 'oh hey, look who is also here....' And then she got a quad. lol. Titova's programs were very well choreographed-great music, exciting. But Veronikas programs, for me, both fell flat, and most of the other programs-including programs from girls who train far from Moscow- were far more interesting, sophisticated and well crafted. A bigger problem is Plushy's skaters speed a great deal of time doing his shows rather than steady training, and as talented as they are, they are not as well trained as Eteri or even the non Eteri skaters.

 

[Kittosuni]

This is just tasteless going after skaters whose camps doesn't even have a clout from the fed.

Such a disrespect to Alina who skated lights out and deservedly won.

Now that the federation has called his bluff, we'll see if he follows thru or if there is even an ounce of truthfulness to that.

 

[Kittosuni]

Really funny how the Fed called his bluff.

I guess have fun in Belarus.