Ladies podium
1. Eteri
2. Eteri
3. ex-Eteri
Hats off to RusFed. I was wrong about them, I admit. They knew their stuff when they pushed Medvedeva for Worlds team.
Hats off to RusFed. I was wrong about them, I admit. They knew their stuff when they pushed Medvedeva for Worlds team.
Hats off to RusFed. I was wrong about them, I admit. They knew their stuff when they pushed Medvedeva for Worlds team.
The crazy thing is that it's not out of the realm of possibility that this could be the last time we see Alina and Zhenya in Worlds, even with three spots secured for Russia next year. I'm not saying they won't be back, but it's not inconceivable, for example, that Sasha, Anna, and Alena secure all three spots next year. (Unless Alina, as defending champion, is somehow guaranteed a return? Not sure how RusFed handles this.) I mean, we all saw how Russian Nationals played out, so this isn't purely hypothetical.
Clearly much more goes on behind the scenes than we fans realize. I'm guessing they'd also been monitoring Zhenya's progress before they pushed her to the top at Russian Cup.
Carefully I look forward to two medals. Although ... or two medals for Eteri.
It's entirely possible, and even *likely*. That's the scary part. It will all come down to which of the high risk, high reward girls hits on the night of Russian nationals.
Which really drives home the point that the ISU and Olympics really need to change their selection methodologies ASAP. It will be an insult to figure skating fans, figure skaters, and the sport itself not to have the truly best skaters in the world competing at these events. I'm sorry, but giving Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Brazil (not to pick on them specifically) spots at the expense of truly showcasing the best skaters in the world is a travesty and farce.
I disagree. For me the selection process taht we have now, is the happy medium that I appreciate and enjoy. While I like seeing the best of the best, I appreciate variety at the same time. Variety of both nationality and level. It gives a casual viewer a nice perspective of how difficult this sport really is. Sorry, but I'm in the camp 'I vote for keeping the status quo'. An imaginary event where one half were Russians, the other Americans and Japanese, would become boring to me. I don't think I would enjoy it as much as I do the current events.
4 spots? I think there is a way you should be able to earn four spots per country just like you can earn three spots per country or lose three spots and go to two. I like the idea of a merit-based system combined with a lot of countries being represented even the smaller countries. That should be doable for the ISU.Russian girls 1+3+8=12 Surely that should be enough for 4 spots next year...
Which really drives home the point that the ISU and Olympics really need to change their selection methodologies ASAP. It will be an insult to figure skating fans, figure skaters, and the sport itself not to have the truly best skaters in the world competing at these events. I'm sorry, but giving Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Brazil (not to pick on them specifically) spots at the expense of truly showcasing the best skaters in the world is a travesty and farce.