I think the world's showed that pretty much every skater is emotionally and physically spent. Evgenia was emotionally spent after her free skate at the Olympics. When she broke down immediately after her fs and had her heart ripped out after the scores, even if she was healthy I doubt her head was in a good place for world's. Winning gold would probably solidify her as one of the greats. I don't speak russian but even her interviews with Russian tv had a sense of mourning about them, it reminds me of Michelle Kwan.
Alina, I think she was just tired. She probably felt the need to justify her gold medal to her coach, her country, and skating fans that she deserved the gold medal over Evgenia. I also don't think she was prepared for the media scrutiny. Is any 15 year old really ready? Evgenia looks like a natural show woman, she loves the camera and the camera loves her.
The next year will be interesting for both skaters.
Evgenia is in the Michelle Kwan scenario but worse. She is not in a country where she can be an Osmond or Kostner and have ups and downs for a few years. Hell team Eteri looks scary as hell. I think Javier said "I like doing quads but falling down hurts a lot more as I get older". How many times is she willing to fall, and watch Trusova, Zagitova and etc do something she realistically might not physically be capable of matching.
Alina, will her body betray her, and how will she react to having her body dissected in the newspapers if she falters next season like at world's. Her quote "“When I came in first, I felt very, very happy but also kind of empty inside" concerns me.
Honestly for the next stage of their careers, Eteri might not be the best for either skaters. I actually don't mind Eteri that much. I am ok with her being a tough coach and a taskmaster. However, when it comes to health and things like puberty or weight, assuming what Alina said about puberty being an invention, I think Eteri has the old school mentality of no pain no gain and everything bad happens because you're not tough enough. That type of mentality is detrimental to long term health of teenagers. Eteri probably runs her school with an iron fist and probably has no interest in hearing the ideas of a nutritionist and Eteri thinks only she knows what's best for her skaters because look at all the medals.
The other problem I have with Eteri is she throws her former skaters under the bus. Like, that Vogue article sound like blames Lipnitskaya and her mother for her declining skating performance.
Compare how Brian Orser talks about his skaters his role with them, it's night and day.
