Evgenia Medvedeva

[Reth]

Wait people really think Brian and Tracy are softies? hahah they were competitive skaters, nation champs of their gen, and now top coaches, you cant be a softie and achieve that. They are classy, Evgenia would be fine. Im pretty sure they would ignore each other. I cant say how Ev would react thought, would she smile? would she talk to Alina? She will act classy too but in the meantime. I just hope for her to have fun and shout mouths with her new program

I remember someone said Tracy looks soft but tells it like it is. There was a backstage story of how she was interviewing Oksana Baiul and Oksana has a bad skate and was rude to Tracy. Tracy told the camera after Oksana walked away something like she maybe Olympic champion but she isn’t a nice person.....

 

[glassanimal]

Honestly, there's zero indication that Eteri took this well....at all. Evgenia and her team would be better to just ignore her completely at this point. Evgenia doesn't need any more drama, she just needs to skate and live her best life. :agree:

 

[nervosa]

Honestly, there's zero indication that Eteri took this well....at all. Evgenia and her team would be better to just ignore her completely at this point. Evgenia doesn't need any more drama, she just needs to skate and live her best life. :agree:

Yup. No matter how nice it would be if Zhenya and Eteri could resolve their conflict, the thing is that Zhenya no longer depends on Eteri for anything. She is an adult now, and training with someone else (with the support of her fed, even). I think she may give a polite greeting to Eteri, perhaps interact a bit with Alina and Eteri's other skaters (I hope they'll all remain on good terms, even if not as close as before), and do her job, which is to skate.

 

[TGee]

Today I started my Russian 101 class at university. I currently have picked up only a few words from following skating, but I’m doing it for Zhenya! Wish me luck!

Have courage!

Russian is a very difficult language for English native speakers.

There is a difficulty ranking system: Spanish is a 2, French a 3, Russian a 4, and Japanese a 5.

But if you travel to Russia, you will find that Russians are very positive towards visitors who make the effort.

 

[50 Words for Snow]

Have courage!

Russian is a very difficult language for English native speakers.

There is a difficulty ranking system: Spanish is a 2, French a 3, Russian a 4, and Japanese a 5.

But if you travel to Russia, you will find that Russians are very positive towards visitors who make the effort.

I can halfway speak Spanish, and it was easier at the beginning than French, which I've started trying to learn while driving and sleeping by listening to YouTube videos and trying to repeat the phrases (because I'm going to Montreal in October to see Zhenya compete at Skate Canada and don't want to rely entirely on finding English-speaking residents of the city in order to get by). An English speaker can easily make all of the sounds in Spanish except for the rolled "r," and that comes with a little practice. French has harder pronunciations; there's nothing even remotely close to the French "r" pronunciation in English.

I have not tried Russian (although I can say "spasibo" well enough to get a chuckle from my Russian boss), but I imagine that it's quite difficult simply from listening to Russians struggle to speak English. Their accents start out much harder to decipher than say, Mexicans or Germans. Just listening to Zhenya's English develop over the last couple of years, you can see how hard it must be to learn, and so the reverse would be true for English speakers learning Russian. I just hope our thick accents are as pleasant as theirs; they mangle English in a fairly aesthetic way.

 

[ejnsofi]

Today I started my Russian 101 class at university. I currently have picked up only a few words from following skating, but I’m doing it for Zhenya! Wish me luck!

Good luck! I have a great respect towards English native speakers who try to learn another language as knowing English is sufficient in modern world to travel everywhere you want or to get a good job. If I were English native speaker I’d probably never try to learn foreign language as it’s the thing I’m really awful at.

Also Russian! As a Slav I can tell that all Slavic languages have really difficult grammar and pronunciation is also problematic. Every time somebody tries to utter some words in Polish I’m in “Yiu are doing great sweetie” mode

 

[glassanimal]

Drop. https://www.m24.ru/shows3/10/138042

Interview from Ilya Averbukh, part of it is about Evgenia

Some highlights: (hopefully someone will provide a more complete translation)

-He says he fully supports her decision and that she has every right to make decisions about her career

-Eteri spent a long time with Evgenia, and that her bitter feelings can be understood.

-He proposes a contract-based system between coaches and students, and thinks this may alleviate some of the problems both students and coaches may face during a transition.

-He wishes Evgenia the best and is in contact with her; she seems very motivated.

- He called her the heart and face of Russian figure skating and said that talk of treason is ridiculous.

- He praised Orser and calls him very high level coach.

- He says that Evgenia is very intelligent, can adapt well, and praises her mom who is like her manager.

- He talks about programs and says that any program depends on good execution, and mistakes kill a program. Judges value any program if the jumps are executed well with musical accents.

 

[Wheelz]

I’m showing my age with this statement, but it seems like the Russian skaters who competed in the late 80’s & 90’s spoke better English & made an effort to speak it in interviews more than the 2014 to the current group. With the ladies I’ve only ever hear Zhenya & Kosternaya volunteer to speak English in interviews. It seems like the opposite should be true.

 

[dante]

Today I started my Russian 101 class at university. I currently have picked up only a few words from following skating, but I’m doing it for Zhenya! Wish me luck!

The East Slavic languages probably have the most complex morphology in the world, but thankfully you don't need it to survive. Much respect to you anyway.

 

[crankyintheAM]

Drop. https://www.m24.ru/shows3/10/138042

Interview from Ilya Averbukh, part of it is about Evgenia

Some highlights: (hopefully someone will provide a more complete translation)

-He says he fully supports her decision and that she has every right to make decisions about her career

-Eteri spent a long time with Evgenia, and that her bitter feelings can be understood.

-He proposes a contract-based system between coaches and students, and thinks this may alleviate some of the problems both students and coaches may face during a transition.

-He wishes Evgenia the best and is in contact with her; she seems very motivated.

- He called her the heart and face of Russian figure skating and said that talk of treason is ridiculous.

- He praised Orser and calls him very high level coach.

- He says that Evgenia is very intelligent, can adapt well, and praises her mom who is like her manager.

- He talks about programs and says that any program depends on good execution, and mistakes kill a program. Judges value any program if the jumps are executed well with musical accents.

Averbukh has gone beyond and above any duty he might have had (RusFed?) to supporting Evgenia. It's nice that he's so publicly supportive of her and her decision, and his comments are very levelheaded and conciliatory (?), even though he's totally team Evgenia so far.

 

[elizabethj37]

More and more skaters should be allowed to train abroad. So that if someone else decides to train elsewhere, they won’t blow it out of proportion. Very interesting to see how Evgenia’s choice will impact the RusFed.

 

[Watch]

I'm glad Aver is so supportive in every interview and goes out of his way to praise Zhenya and her decision. I found the thing he said about contracts a tad weird, though... he proposes a system similar to the one that exist in team sports, where the new club pays a certain sum to the club that "raised" the player because they're going to benefit off the first club's work. But well yeah, that's because the player is going to play FOR the club and FOR the team and all of his future success will count towards the team first and only somewhat secondary towards him. That's not the case in figure skating. Besides, he justifies his proposal by mentioning how coaches get a cut from the skaters' winnings, but that's only the case under the Russian system. Brian isn't going to earn more or less depending on how well Zhenya places, he's just earning his hourly wage for the work he does.

But ya know, I find it somewhat ironic that one of the pretense-"criticisms" hurled at Zhenya and Brian by some of the haters in Russia specifically is that "Orser just coaches for money, our coaches do it for our country!", while Aver's musing unmistakenly reveal how much of a factor financial loss is for any Russian coach, and in this case for Eteri, when a successful skater who was winning them a lot of prize money leaves for another. Which, by the way, isn't wrong per se... of course people work for money, as they very well should.

 

[KiraraChin]

Drop. https://www.m24.ru/shows3/10/138042

Interview from Ilya Averbukh, part of it is about Evgenia

Some highlights: (hopefully someone will provide a more complete translation)

-He says he fully supports her decision and that she has every right to make decisions about her career

-Eteri spent a long time with Evgenia, and that her bitter feelings can be understood.

-He proposes a contract-based system between coaches and students, and thinks this may alleviate some of the problems both students and coaches may face during a transition.

-He wishes Evgenia the best and is in contact with her; she seems very motivated.

- He called her the heart and face of Russian figure skating and said that talk of treason is ridiculous.

- He praised Orser and calls him very high level coach.

- He says that Evgenia is very intelligent, can adapt well, and praises her mom who is like her manager.

- He talks about programs and says that any program depends on good execution, and mistakes kill a program. Judges value any program if the jumps are executed well with musical accents.

Thank you for this, Averbukh talks a lot of sense here. I find it amazing that Zhenya herself said she didn't like some of her programmes that were choreographed by him (like 9/11 and January Stars), and yet he seems to really like her. I imagine they must be close enough that she can have her criticisms without affecting their friendship.

 

[skatingfan200]

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2018/08/21/figure-skating/choreography-legend-david-wilson-man-demand/#.W3viKM4zZ0z
Wilson interview - Zhenya´s part

New challenge with Evgenia
Wilson said he was looking forward to working with two-time world champion and Pyeongchang silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva, who joined Orser this summer in a very surprising move.

“She did Javi’s show ‘Revolution on Ice’ a couple of years ago. She guest-starred and she was quite lovely,” Wilson noted. “She was mature and delightful to work with.

“She puts it out there. She turns on the switch. She means business. I’m really excited to actually work with her for real. I think it will be great.”

Wilson thinks having both Hanyu and Medvedeva practice together each day presents an ideal situation.

“Having Yuzuru and Javi for over four years, and getting through that so well with one having won and then the other having won,” Wilson commented. “There were very few problems at all.

“Having a really top female and a top male skater is kind of perfect, because they are not competing against each other. They can just simply be inspiring to each other. And they both have a compatible work ethic.

“They are both tigers. So that’s great. I think there is a mutual respect.”

 

[flanker]

I'm glad Aver is so supportive in every interview and goes out of his way to praise Zhenya and her decision. I found the thing he said about contracts a tad weird, though... he proposes a system similar to the one that exist in team sports, where the new club pays a certain sum to the club that "raised" the player because they're going to benefit off the first club's work. But well yeah, that's because the player is going to play FOR the club and FOR the team and all of his future success will count towards the team first and only somewhat secondary towards him. That's not the case in figure skating. Besides, he justifies his proposal by mentioning how coaches get a cut from the skaters' winnings, but that's only the case under the Russian system. Brian isn't going to earn more or less depending on how well Zhenya places, he's just earning his hourly wage for the work he does.

That IS the case in figure skating, as the club is evaluated by success of its athletes. More support, bigger interest of athletes to train in that club.

 

[Backload]

He calls Zhenya and asks: Zhenya where are you, why are you not in Moscow, I already came here.

Lol. Thanks you

 

[lastremnant]

I’m showing my age with this statement, but it seems like the Russian skaters who competed in the late 80’s & 90’s spoke better English & made an effort to speak it in interviews more than the 2014 to the current group. With the ladies I’ve only ever hear Zhenya & Kosternaya volunteer to speak English in interviews. It seems like the opposite should be true.

I have noticed that many Russian skaters, especially the younger ones, are probably puzzled by the English replies on their social media unless you keep it short to a few often used words (ex/ beautiful, pretty, great, etc...). But I think there are several things behind it: 1) like anyone else, it’s hard to learn a language other than your own especially when your focus is on other things like figure skating and probably their other school work 2) it is far easier to learn a language when you live with people who speak it. For example, after her time in Canada, Zhenya will probably be a professional at English if not fluent in it.

For anyone who wants to learn conversational Russian so you can hold a short conversation I’d recommend the Mango app. It won’t have you reading books in Russian but it helps you learn a few everyday phrases and understand the replies to them.

 

[Watch]

That IS the case in figure skating, as the club is evaluated by success of its athletes. More support, bigger interest of athletes to train in that club.

I didn't express myself clearly, I think. In that sense yes, sure. But when a figure skater wins the WC title, it's him personally who holds the title. When, say, a football team wins the WC, it's the whole team and not one athlete and the team usually has the club in its name. A single sport athlete wins for himself first, a team sport player wins for the team first. Besides, football players and such get a salary from their club and it's astronomically high if they're world class - they are employees in that sense. Figure skaters do not.

 

[carmina]

Today I started my Russian 101 class at university. I currently have picked up only a few words from following skating, but I’m doing it for Zhenya! Wish me luck!

I wish you good luck and hope you don't give up... :agree:
I try to learn russian last year and take course for six month - then give up but I plan to try again this winter
For me it was very difficult to make the right sounds and writing is not easy at all - it makes me realize how easy to learn english, and I even prefer to study german which I hated at high school
It is nice to see that someone try to learn russian because of evgenia like me lol :cool2:

 

[IceCrystalChris]

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2018/08/21/figure-skating/choreography-legend-david-wilson-man-demand/#.W3viKM4zZ0z
Wilson interview - Zhenya´s part

Thanks for the Wilson interview! I can’t wait to see what programs he and Zhenya have built together!

It’s great to hear Wilson’s positivity about Zhenya and how her and Yuzuru will inspire each other and keep pushing themselves. It’s also nice that there not in direct competition with each other although Javi-Yuzu worked well. Any other skaters in TCC are getting double the inspiration! [emoji106]