Anna Duskova & Martin Bidar

[CaroLiza_fan]

And another photo
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkQfB03j5O7/?taken-by=czechfigureskating

Should we take this being on the Czech Fed's page as confirmation that they will be representing the Czech Republic rather than Russia?

Am I right in thinking that they will be eligible to compete straight away? According to her fskate.ru Bio, Nika hasn't competed internationally since November 2016 (when she won the Volvo Open with Galliamov). So, if it is indeed her that is switching countries, she is well past the 12 months embargo period.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[MelDee]

Should we take this being on the Czech Fed's page as confirmation that they will be representing the Czech Republic rather than Russia?

Judging from the wording of the caption, it indeed does seem to imply that they'd represent the Czech Republic if the tryout works out.

 

[hanca]

Should we take this being on the Czech Fed's page as confirmation that they will be representing the Czech Republic rather than Russia?

Am I right in thinking that they will be eligible to compete straight away? According to her fskate.ru Bio, Nika hasn't competed internationally since November 2016 (when she won the Volvo Open with Galliamov). So, if it is indeed her that is switching countries, she is well past the 12 months embargo period.

CaroLiza_fan

She needs to be released by the Russian skating federation first, but I can’t see why they should make it difficult for her. It is not as if they needed her.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Just getting away from new partnerships or not for a moment, Martin has posted a beautiful picture of him with his sister's new baby, Eliška:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkp8FnaDcAF/

Congratulations to Jana and the whole family circle.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Jana]

That’s the weird thing. She competed internationally more than a year ago, so it is not ISU who would prevent her compete for another country. However, as any skater who wants to change country, she would also need to be released by her skating federation. So if there are any problems that she can’t skate in this coming season, the only reason why not is that Russian skating federation is refusing to release her at the moment. In the past Russia held some skaters for far too long, e.g, Iliuschetchkina was held for four years, but since then there have been many skaters released quite quickly, so I am not sure why would they want to insist on keeping Osipova. And a few days ago the federation was ‘celebrating’ this new partnership, and suddenly just a week later they are calling it too complicated. When Osipova and Bidar got together, surely they must have noticed that she is not Czech and therefore would need to be released, so what’s the huge surprise now? And if Bidar wants to train abroad, does he hope to find there a Czech girl, or will he find another girl who needs to be released?

I don't understand this. Bidar is looking for a girl at his level (so not a beginner). He wants go abroad and considers partners from abroad. He should know that they will not compete next season (due to release conditios/ISU rules). He has too many conditions for a new partner (skating level, released immediately to compete next season for the CR, same goal and many many others). He wants the best but do not compromise (this is also visible from the splitup with Anna - I WANT THIS and I MUST get it!).


However, I think the reason is false, there is probably something else.

 

[hanca]

I don't understand this. Bidar is looking for a girl at his level (so not a beginner). He wants go abroad and considers partners from abroad. He should know that they will not compete next season (due to release conditios/ISU rules). He has too many conditions for a new partner (skating level, released immediately to compete next season for the CR, same goal and many many others). He wants the best but do not compromise (this is also visible from the splitup with Anna - I WANT THIS and I MUST get it!).

However, I think the reason is false, there is probably something else.

That’s what I think, that there must be a different reason than the one they said. At the time when he and Osipova got together, he would know she needs to be released, same as any other female pair skater who is not Czech. So it is weird that suddenly that should be a problem. And does he expect that it won’t be a problem with another foreign partner?

I am wondering whether the real problem may be the coaching situation. Osipova/Bidar were going to skate with Pavlova, and that’s an extremely harsh coach. Maybe Bidar realised that he wouldn’t survive for long in such environment. Although usually she is nasty mostly to female partners, the male has the God-like status and the female is the one to be blamed for any mistake, so Bidar would be ‘safe’.

 

[Jana]

I am wondering whether the real problem may be the coaching situation. Osipova/Bidar were going to skate with Pavlova, and that’s an extremely harsh coach. Maybe Bidar realised that he wouldn’t survive for long in such environment. Although usually she is nasty mostly to female partners, the male has the God-like status and the female is the one to be blamed for any mistake, so Bidar would be ‘safe’.

They can be coached by someone else. Or Bidar is looking for skater with coach? What about his Canadien coach (Gauthier)?

 

[hanca]

They can be coached by someone else. Or Bidar is looking for skater with coach? What about his Canadien coach (Gauthier)?

I don’t know how Pavlova was chosen. She wasn’t Osipova’s coach last season. Last season Osipova was with Moskvina/Vasiliev, and the year before when she skated with Galliamov, she was coached by Velikova/Velikov. To me the choice of coaches is the thing that doesn’t make sense. Who suggested that? Why would Osipova wanted her as a coach?

 

[Jana]

Czech Fed post reason why Martin can't team up with Osipova - She was rejected to represent Czech Republic.

 

[surimi]

Czech Fed post reason why Martin can't team up with Osipova - She was rejected to represent Czech Republic.

You mean the Russian Fed won't allow her to? Or that the Czech side rejected her request?

 

[Jana]

You mean the Russian Fed won't allow her to? Or that the Czech side rejected her request?

I think that the problem is on the Russian side. Czech Fed doesn't have a reason to reject her - they want two new pairs and know that Martin is looking for a new partner abroad. Nobody had a problem with Czech Fed to skate under Czech flag with Czech partner. (Passport issues are something else, it is by law - so it is given.)

It is easy - Russia is afraid that they will beat their pairs. They could be a strong team.

 

[hanca]

Czech Fed post reason why Martin can't team up with Osipova - She was rejected to represent Czech Republic.

Czech federation couldn’t reject her because they were (prematurely) celebrating Bidar’s partnership with Osipova, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to reject her at the same time. People at the Russian forum are speculating that she wasn’t released by the Russian federation.

My guess is that Russian federation realises that Osipova can potentially be a strong skater, Bidar has been also looking promising the past few years and that’s why they do not want another situation like with Alexandrovskaya - they released Alexandrovskaya and she then managed to beat all their pairs at junior worlds in her first season in her new partnership. Russia does not have very strong senior pairs at the moment. There is only Tarasova/Morozov and that’s it. Stolbova/Klimov are injured far too often and when they are not injured, they won’t be as strong and reliable as they were 4 years ago. Astakhova/Rogonov have split up. Zabijako/Enbert are very unlikely to get at world podium; they have done relatively well but I think they achieved their potential, they won’t get much better than that. Efimova/Korovin are lovely to watch but they don’t seem to be moving upwards very fast and Efimova struggles with jumps. So the future of Russian pairs will be with the current wave of juniors (they have about 10 decent junior pairs, so whoever will survive the puberty and transition to seniors) and with the fresh seniors (Boikova/Kozlovski and Pavliuschenko/Khodykhin). But Osipova/Bidar would be very close competition to those pairs. Bidar won junior worlds and Osipova in her partnership with Galliamov was scoring very comparably with the current top junior pairs.

I don’t care that much about Bidar, but I do feel sorry for Osipova. If she couldn’t find a partner in Russia, what is she supposed to do? Sit on her bottom and wait for a miracle? Or wait for four years like Iliuschetchkina to allow the current junior pairs get established in seniors so that she does not pose threat to them? I was hoping to see her skating again soon.

 

[Jana]

Martin posted the reason for the split on his Instagram: The main reason was the coach (Mrs. Horklova) (as expected), but there were several others.

 

[Mdk0144]

You know, they already made one mistake with Nika.

It is not only about the release but also about the conditions, training location (who will train them? Martin wants to leave Eva Horklova/Prague and train abroad), money, maybe citizenship (Martin wants to perform at the Olympics).

Well it seems martin’s partner is stronger than anna’s partner, so i think we just have to wait and see. I was actually pretty shocked when I first saw the video of Radek ;-(

 

[Jana]

Well it seems martin’s partner is stronger than anna’s partner, so i think we just have to wait and see. I was actually pretty shocked when I first saw the video of Radek ;-(

What video? Video of the spin and death spiral with Anna? Yes, Radek is not so strong Anna deserves better partner, but we will see - she is still off ice

 

[hanca]

Well, let’s hope that his career doesn’t go the way his brother’s career went. I don’t think before he dumped Anna, he fully realised how hard it would be to find a good partner. There is plenty of female pair skaters available, but a good one, that’s harder to find.

 

[Lana05]

Well, let’s hope that his career doesn’t go the way his brother’s career went. I don’t think before he dumped Anna, he fully realised how hard it would be to find a good partner. There is plenty of female pair skaters available, but a good one, that’s harder to find.

Who is his brother?? First time I heard about him

 

[Mdk0144]

What video? Video of the spin and death spiral with Anna? Yes, Radek is not so strong Anna deserves better partner, but we will see - she is still off ice

I was meaning him with his previous partner. And also him w anna too

 

[Jana]

Who is his brother?? First time I heard about him

Petr Bidar - he competed in Pairs with Klara Kadlecova. Then they split, Petr was trying to find a new partner but did not succeed so he retired.

 

[surimi]

Well, let’s hope that his career doesn’t go the way his brother’s career went. I don’t think before he dumped Anna, he fully realised how hard it would be to find a good partner. There is plenty of female pair skaters available, but a good one, that’s harder to find.

Would you just stop picking on Martin in (partly, but still) his own fanfest? If you've got insider info, that's OK; but last I heard, he moved out of Anna's parents' house and cited their and the coaches' meddling, and Anna's family sending a letter of the split to the fed. That's not how I define partner dumping. FWIW, Martin sounds much more committed to serious competing than Anna who's made it clear that her preference are her university studies and refuses to move out of the CZ to achieve better results. I was a big fan of this partnership, but now my sympathies are mainly with Martin for prioritizing skating and trying hard to make it to the elite world stage (because once Brezina retires, who of the Czech skaters can make it to the GP, hmm?), and I don't appreciate your implications about him.