2018-19 Russian Ladies' figure skating

[bubblecherry]

It would be nice if the people in this thread would look at the great & respectable character of the ladies that they enjoy and take some inspiration from them

 

[Skater Boy]

The Canadians jest released their picks for the worlds. We are talking here about leaving Evgenia home, while they are sending Aurora.
Three ladies per country rule...

too bad Canada couldn't pickup Evgenia

 

[Alexz]

Sure. Do the same for every other Olympic sport, both Summer & Winter, then only talk. Then answer those Russian athletes from some sports(and fans) who wouldnt qualify for Olympics if that happens. I'll like to see 4 to 5 entrants from my country for certain sports too.
It's the Olympic quota rule for inclusivity.

Some sports was not voted in as Olympic sports cos they say the medal winners are only from a few select countries, deemed not inclusive enough.

Inclusivity in sport is discriminative and pretty stupid. I would forbid any flags and anthems on Olympics and Worlds. For everyone. Sport fans know where their favorite athletes are from. I want to see all strongest athletes on competition. Everyone should be given a fair chance disregarding his/her/their nationality and place of birth. There should be no "inclusivity" in sports. Only strongest against the strongest. Sport becoming more globalized now. We care less about athletes nationality and language they speak, but we want to see the true ultimate competition of the best. Language will be no problem soon - with recent breakthrough in neuro-networks and machine learning translation services like Google-translate, Yandex.translate and others are getting amazingly better with every year, soon translation services and apps capable of translating everything (including human speech) "on a fly" will be available. We see many Americans rooting for Russian girls, we see many Russians staning Hanyu and other Japanese skaters, we see many Japanese fangirling over random skaters and adoring figure skating in general. We see international fans interacting freely with their favorite athletes via social media just by using google-translate. Lately athletes need less corportive/national journalism and more individual spokesperson/agent. That's the global tendency. Screw the flags, let's ban all national symbols from the Olympics. This will take the unnecessary nationalistic edge off the sport. Olympics would not be celebration of nationalistic pride any more, but become a party of high-performance sports and international friendship. And an inspiration of sort. Sure, random politicians and nationalists can still (and will) celebrate and count their medals at home, but this useless habbit will die soon anyways, if the general atmosphere on competitions will be less about the nationalism and more about the professional sport and fairness. Everyone will win. Politicians sponging on nationalism will loose. World peace - 1, politicians - 0.

 

[DSQ]

The Olympics are an exercise in diplomacy, get rid of the flags and you miss the point.

 

[lzxnl]

Inclusivity in sport is discriminative and pretty stupid. I would forbid any flags and anthems on Olympics and Worlds. For everyone. Sport fans know where their favorite athletes are from. I want to see all strongest athletes on competition. Everyone should be given a fair chance disregarding his/her/their nationality and place of birth. There should be "inclusivity" in sports. Only strongest against the strongest. Sport becoming more globalized now. We care less about athletes nationality and language they speak, but we want to see the true ultimate competition of the best. Language will be no problem soon - with recent breakthrough in neuro-networks and machine learning translation services like Google-translate, Yandex.translate and others are getting amazingly better with every year, soon translation services and apps capable of translating everything (including human speech) "on a fly" will be available. We see many Americans rooting for Russian girls, we see many Russians staning Hanyu and other Japanese skaters, we see many Japanese fangirling over random skaters and adoring figure skating in general. We see international fans interacting freely with their favorite athletes just by using google-translate. Lately athletes need less corportive/national journalism and more individual spokesperson/agent. That's the global tendency. Screw the flags, let's ban all national symbols from the Olympics. This will take the unnecessary nationalistic edge off the sport. Olympics would not be celebration of flags or nationalistic pride any more, but become a party of high-performance sport and international friendship. Sure, random politicians can still (and will) celebrate and count their medals at home, but it will die soon anyways, if the general atmosphere on competitions will be less about the nationalism and more about the professional sport and fairness. Everyone will win.

We live in a world where children get upset over not getting participation medals. While I agree wholeheartedly with your idea, I cannot see it implemented soon.

 

[Alexz]

There are tricky rules where if you withdraw from ISU events you are qualified for and participate in non ISU events some sort of discipline happens. It might be tricky. I say just make the Russian Cup more lucrative and keep talented skaters from retiring. Someone like Gubanova deserves to earn a living for her talent and competive level. It’s ridiculous she’s never been to a major international event besides the JGPF in which she took silver behind Alina. It’s all sorts of crazy IMO!!

Tarakanova is on a similar path!!!

Russia and Japan could throw hecka glamorous show/competition with their figure skating ladies. And I think they soon will. Something similar to our NCAA. Vibrant, loud, stylish and hip. With some backstage and pro-forma drama in slight reality-TV sense. With hefty prizes and compensations. They can organize and create a great show. And SELL it to Netflix or Amazon online streaming. I would buy that and even sometimes travel to that.

Rus and Japan Nats were the most exciting events this season in Ladies. Worlds probably will be comparable, but it still will be lacking all the best skaters.

Gubanova deserves better programs. fo sho. Packaging by CSKA was exceptionally bad for the recent 4-5 years. Although Adeline Sotnikova was packaged and styled rather very well, but that's their last noticeably good work, so far. I feel like Gubanova is a small cinderella there, they blackswaning her or what.

 

[DSQ]

We live in a world where children get upset over not getting participation medals. While I agree wholeheartedly with your idea, I cannot see it implemented soon.

Do they? I always thought that was a myth.

The GP is the venue for inclusiveness it’s only a quirk of the host’s rights that limits the countries entries. I’d be much more open to getting rid of that limitation than having 80 competitors in ladies at worlds if we got rid of the limitations per country.

Other than club football I can’t think of any sport that doesn’t have some sort of limits on participation on top of just being good.

 

[Alexz]

The Canadians jest released their picks for the worlds. We are talking here about leaving Evgenia home, while they are sending Aurora.
Three ladies per country rule...

too bad Canada couldn't pickup Evgenia

I proposed the idea to ban all flags and national identities from Olympics and Worlds. At least in figure skating (for the start). So we will enjoy all the strongest athletes and cheer for those we like personally. Nationalistic pride should be kicked out the sports. Though Canadians certainly can still secretly root and stan for Zhenya since she is a Russian currently embracing a Canadian coaching, but after 1-2 Olympic cycles with "no-flags" policy even this would be senile atavism.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Even though I like Alina, I think it would be beneficial in the long term for Russian skating if Alina stayed home and Zhenya and Liza went to the Worlds. Eteri should receive a very strong message that her complete inability to train a mature skater is not acceptable. Alina is regressing rapidly and that should be addressed. And Eteri should get the message.

Sure! Let's just get Russia to give up their 3rd spot at 2020 Worlds right from the get-go!

It is absolutely ridiculous to conceive that Alina - currently ranked #1, with the highest score of all ladies, two GP wins and GPF/Euros silvers, reigning OGM - should stay home. It would be one of the most questionable decisions ever by the RusFed although it is the RusFed we are talking about.

 

[Alexz]

We live in a world where children get upset over not getting participation medals. While I agree wholeheartedly with your idea, I cannot see it implemented soon.

Unfortunately.

 

[el henry]

Do they? I always thought that was a myth.

The GP is the venue for inclusiveness it’s only a quirk of the host’s rights that limits the countries entries. I’d be much more open to getting rid of that limitation than having 80 competitors in ladies at worlds if we got rid of the limitations per country.

Other than club football I can’t think of any sport that doesn’t have some sort of limits on participation on top of just being good.

“Participation medals” as some sort of destroyer of young minds and competitive spirit is in fact a myth. Besides, Charlie White once tweeted, what’s wrong with participation medals, I liked getting participation medals! I’m with Charlie:agree:

And I am with Worlds as currently constructed, participation for all countries and limited by country. Nothing could be more fair

And it’s not changing anytime soon, so the question remains: who will be the third Russian lady be at Worlds?

 

[Koatterce]

Inclusivity in sport is discriminative and pretty stupid. I would forbid any flags and anthems on Olympics and Worlds. For everyone. Sport fans know where their favorite athletes are from. I want to see all strongest athletes on competition. Everyone should be given a fair chance disregarding his/her/their nationality and place of birth. There should be no "inclusivity" in sports. Only strongest against the strongest. Sport becoming more globalized now. We care less about athletes nationality and language they speak, but we want to see the true ultimate competition of the best. Language will be no problem soon - with recent breakthrough in neuro-networks and machine learning translation services like Google-translate, Yandex.translate and others are getting amazingly better with every year, soon translation services and apps capable of translating everything (including human speech) "on a fly" will be available. We see many Americans rooting for Russian girls, we see many Russians staning Hanyu and other Japanese skaters, we see many Japanese fangirling over random skaters and adoring figure skating in general. We see international fans interacting freely with their favorite athletes via social media just by using google-translate. Lately athletes need less corportive/national journalism and more individual spokesperson/agent. That's the global tendency. Screw the flags, let's ban all national symbols from the Olympics. This will take the unnecessary nationalistic edge off the sport. Olympics would not be celebration of nationalistic pride any more, but become a party of high-performance sports and international friendship. And an inspiration of sort. Sure, random politicians and nationalists can still (and will) celebrate and count their medals at home, but this useless habbit will die soon anyways, if the general atmosphere on competitions will be less about the nationalism and more about the professional sport and fairness. Everyone will win. Politicians sponging on nationalism will loose. World peace - 1, politicians - 0.

Say goodbye to state funding then.

Countries fund sport because it looks good on themselves - remove them from the equation and they'll remove their contribution

Most people aren't rich enough to pursue sport at that high of a level. And only elite athletes can get sponsors of any sort, so those won't help developing athletes at all.

Figure skating is a super expensive sport. who's going to pay to host events, invite judges, do broadcasting?

 

[Manitou]

“Participation medals” as some sort of destroyer of young minds and competitive spirit is in fact a myth. Besides, Charlie White once tweeted, what’s wrong with participation medals, I liked getting participation medals! I’m with Charlie:agree:

And I am with Worlds as currently constructed, participation for all countries and limited by country. Nothing could be more fair

And it’s not changing anytime soon, so the question remains: who will be the third Russian lady be at Worlds?

Participation trophies, inclusivity, no child left behind, etc - it's a self-destruction of a once glorious civilization.

 

[Manitou]

Say goodbye to state funding then. And hello to complete privatization of elite sport.

Privatization of figure skating is possibly the best bet to save this sport. The sport should follow tennis or other commercial sports. But there has to be a visionary leader of this movement plus sponsors and investors to back it.
It's a great sport - one of the most difficult sports ever. A rare combination of brute athleticism, incredible agility and mind of steel together with deep artistry, sensitivity and showmanship. No sport has those all those attributes together. It's a matter of opening to necessary changes and a bold vision.

 

[meadow]

It was last year, she missed Rusnat and Euro, the same for Lisa this year

Last year Evgenia was at Euro, though. She came in second, with Alina first!

I think that the RusFed will go with Liza. She has the 3A and she proved today that she is able to land it even with one month before the Worlds. So in one month, she will be even more prepared as she will have more time to overcome the missed training time due to illness.

I think that too, honestly! She had a good season and she was pretty consistent, too. I love Evgenia, but I don't think that just one competition was enough to prove she has recovered her form. If she had had other competitions to prove herself it would be different, maybe, but at the moment she shouldn't be in a position to threaten Liza, let alone Alina.

 

[Skater Boy]

Privatization of figure skating is possibly the best bet to save this sport. The sport should follow tennis or other commercial sports. But there has to be a visionary leader of this movement plus sponsors and investors to back it.
It's a great sport - one of the most difficult sports ever. A rare combination of brute athleticism, incredible agility and mind of steel together with deep artistry, sensitivity and showmanship. No sport has those all those attributes together. It's a matter of opening to necessary changes and a bold vision.

Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics?

 

[Skater Boy]

“Participation medals” as some sort of destroyer of young minds and competitive spirit is in fact a myth. Besides, Charlie White once tweeted, what’s wrong with participation medals, I liked getting participation medals! I’m with Charlie:agree:

And I am with Worlds as currently constructed, participation for all countries and limited by country. Nothing could be more fair

And it’s not changing anytime soon, so the question remains: who will be the third Russian lady be at Worlds?

Well I think there is a lot of accomplishment just to get to nationals, worlds, olympics. Participation medals there are an achievement very worthy indeed.

 

[eaglehelang]

Do they? I always thought that was a myth.

The GP is the venue for inclusiveness it’s only a quirk of the host’s rights that limits the countries entries. I’d be much more open to getting rid of that limitation than having 80 competitors in ladies at worlds if we got rid of the limitations per country.

Other than club football I can’t think of any sport that doesn’t have some sort of limits on participation on top of just being good.

Yup. Because Olympics has a country limit, every sport that isnt an Olympic sport has limits so the sport could apply to be included in Olympics.

As for diversity, league sports is one place where the of each discipline can be gathered. For instance, we have badminton Men doubles pair- 1 from Indonesia, the other from South Korea, both ex Olympic medalist or World Champion. Dont have go thru the citizenship hassle, just pair up, practice, compete.

The rest can follow the Europe vs North America vs Japan format they did during off season in Japan

 

[Skater Boy]

It would be exhausting for Liza. I really think she deserves her spot for worlds but I think Rusfed wants to give zhenia a chance to defend her two world titles without Osmond.

I am confused. Isn't the real competition the Japanese ladies even if Osmond was skating???

 

[Koatterce]

Privatization of figure skating is possibly the best bet to save this sport. The sport should follow tennis or other commercial sports. But there has to be a visionary leader of this movement plus sponsors and investors to back it.
It's a great sport - one of the most difficult sports ever. A rare combination of brute athleticism, incredible agility and mind of steel together with deep artistry, sensitivity and showmanship. No sport has those all those attributes together. It's a matter of opening to necessary changes and a bold vision.

I'm not talking about funding as a whole. I mean the impact on individual athletes. You've proposed completely removing nationality, which would include federation and government influence. Federations run under government funding so you can't have them without government.

Elite athletes have funding and support from their federations (which get their funding from the government). Countries don't fund their athletes only for the sake of the athletes - it's a matter of national accomplishment (pride, attention, money, whatever). This is especially the case in Russia, where elite sport (at least in figure skating) is essentially completely state funded. That's partly where the success comes from - they invest a lot of money and resources into bringing up the best athletes. Removing the countries means removing all that funding too. Even in countries such as the US or Canada, where many expenses are paid by the skaters themselves, there is still funding support.

And basically all competitions at all levels (local to international) are federation funded - hosting, broadcasting, inviting judges, etc.. where would money come from?

Tennis athletes still represent their countries and get support from their federations, even though they compete more individually. And as with all sports, represent their countries at the Olympics with quota spots by country.