2017-2018 State of Russian Ice Dance
- Thread starter gmyers
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- Oct 25, 2014
Like people haven't been saying worse things about Katia? Please.
Some posters here afford zero courtesy to Katia, Alexandra, Nikita and even Alla. God forbid they stumble once in an entire season and they're over, but Elena might as well throw her entire garden on the ice and she's still elevated to the eleventh heaven.
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- Feb 17, 2010
Well, the official version is that Ruslan has to retire because of his injuries. That`s hardly her fault. And with Nikita it wasn`t just her who was difficult to work with if the rumors were true.
Let`s just say that Elena`s history shows how difficult it can be to find the right partner to skate with even if you are as talented as Elena is. This makes partnerships like Bobrova/Soloviev`s and Stepanova/Bukin`s stand out since they have been skating together over a decade.
she had a tryout with Bukin too and it did not work, right?
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- Feb 17, 2010
I think the rumor was that she had a tryout with Katsalapov, that didn`t work out. She skated with Bukin for a short time when they were kids.
That would have been a great team.
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- Feb 9, 2009
So Ruslan retires due to injuries and that's her fault? He retired. His decision. What is she supposed to do stop her career because he wanted to retire? I don't even have comment about Nikita..
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- Dec 22, 2010
His retirement was partly due to injury and partly due to Elena not being serious about training and being out of shape.
His injury wasn't helped by her weight, and was the final straw.
What I don't understand is that she has got herself back into shape now, why couldn't she do that for Ruslan?
I think she feels motivated now, it is a new start, same like the first season with Ruslan.
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- Feb 9, 2009
Did he specifically say that? I haven't read that anywhere. He has not said anything at all.
Maybe Elena and Ruslan decided to mutually part ways. The last 2 seasons weren't successful. IZ never really had the hype from the Fed either. It was very fan driven. I/S are a month old and Tarasova gave a glowing review, as did Averbukh (in saying that they could challenge for Bronze at Nationals). We won't know for sure until they speak publicly though.
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- Oct 25, 2014
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- Feb 9, 2009
Now THIS I want to see.
This season will be interesting. As a new team I would think they are going to set groundwork for the next quad. The Olympic team is pretty much Brobova/Soloviev and Stepanova/Bukin barring a disastrous GP or Nationals.
I think injuries, illness and lack of motivation each played a role in Lena's weight issues. She has always had her struggles with this and Ruslan couldn't manage these fluctuations because he's simply too small and not strong enough for her both in size and talent/range. It must have been psychologically stressful knowing how thin she HAD to be. Victoria probably had the same struggles. When however she got a stronger partner she was able to get even more svelte. So please lets stop with this nonsense as if it wasn't clearly visibe that their wasn't enough spices between them for them to make a soup of it.
I think this season they just simply hit a brick wall. Based on the interest paid to them and the quality of their programs they knew they had no future it was just a matter of time before things ended. So Lena's weight issues were just symptoms of greater ills. Ruslan seemed to have issues with his back long before she put on weight. He struggled with lifts even when she was a reed, so this continuous need to place the break-up on her is nonsense. Most persons here knew they were unequally paired from the beginning and scoffed at the choice of Ruslan for a partner.
When was the last time Russia has only had two pairs going to an OG? When you look at the fundamentals of their dancers you ask yourself is it really a lack of talent, a lack of hard work or just an unfortunate combination of both issues. Compared to most other pairs last WC the Russian pairs looked rather unsophisticated and sloppy. What is taking them so long to catch up? B/S objectively only earned 7th place at last years WC. Their leadership I believe has gone soft, simply don't really care about ID or are only borderline competent when it comes to ID.
For the 2002 Olympics all nations were capped at 2 dance teams max. So it's the first time in the history of ice dance at the Olympics Russia doesn't have maximum spots.
Judges want North American style and Russians won't adapt! They don't want to admit the the Russian defectors that created the North American style beat them and now are being stubbornly old fashioned just so as to not adopt the Russian defector style.
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- Jul 26, 2003
Were they capped or was it that no federation was able to qualify 3 teams based on the results of 2001 Worlds? That whole Olympic cycle in ice dance, only one country had 3 entries at a Worlds , and that was Russia at 2000 Worlds thanks to the 1999 Worlds placements of Krylova/Ovysiannikov and Lobacheva/Averbukh. Then in 2000 Russia lost it in part to K/O being out.
The math doesn't work for any country getting three. I thought it did. So then answer 2002.
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- Jul 26, 2003
It's quite interesting to look at. There really was more diversity of countries in the top 10 back in those 4 years. At 2000 and 2001 Worlds, the top ten were from ten different countries compared to 2017 worlds where five countries made up the top ten (3 from Canada, 3 from the U.S., 2 from Russia, and 1 each from France and Italy). Of course protocol judging was more obvious and it was way harder to shake up the standings in those days.
More countries represented.
But diversity, in this case, depends on how you look at it. There were 6 teams with Russian athletes in the top ten in 2001. (Likely 7 with members who began their careers in the Soviet system). Today we have 5 teams with U.S. athletes. Change. And yet constancy.
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