2018-19 Russian Ladies' figure skating

[Sugar Coated]

It's not only valid for the russians. There is a long list in history of sports of people competing through pain because of their passion: the american gymnast Kerri Strug jumping vault with a sprained ankle to win team gold in 1996 Olympics, Steven Gerrard playing with a broken foot finger and winning with Liverpool UCL final in 2004, Shun Fujimoto helped Japan win the team gymnastics gold medal at the 1976 Olympics after breaking his kneecap. He competed on the rings with the injury, and ended up dislocating it when he landed. Also, the determined french athlete Yohann Diniz who collapsed twice and defecated during the 50km walk but managed to finish eighth in Rio. Respect for them!!!

But this mentality is also dangerous. You see it in American football that you don’t quit no matter what or your weak. And then you have an 18 year old dying of heat stroke with his coaches telling him to go on until he has a seizure.

But I actually don’t have a problem with Alina competing through this type of injury (as long as she was okay with it). This isn’t something that can cause long term damage (other than scarring) as long as it’s being bandaged, cleaned, and monitored for infection. Other injuries like fractures have the potential for long term damage if you continue to compete on them.

 

[Finley]

But on what do you base that everyone who is voicing a concern is not doing it genuinely?

I have voiced concern for Eteri’s skaters based on their own words. I have seen others voice concern for Eteri’s skaters based on those words.

But a general statement that “some are not genuine” without directly addressing the statements that are supposedly not genuine, is unpersuasive.

Calling people out for their hypocrisy specifically is a good way to get banned on this forum. Or so I've heard. :shock2:

Also trying to persuade some people is a waste of time. But is it so hard to believe that there is a vocal group of online concern trolls who constantly talk about Alina needing to rest/retire whose true motivation is really that they want her to go away because they are sick of seeing her beat the skaters they like?

Here is an example that hopefully won't get in trouble - The incredible wisdom and insight of TSL:

"She needs to retire and get that Sotnikova money!" (I'm sure she will, all in good time.)

"She needs to go to college." (She is 16 and in the 10th grade. Give her a minute.)

"She needs to do a reality show." (She is 16 and have you seen the size of her apartment? Where would the camera go?)

Also the never-ending chorus that Alina shouldn't go to Worlds because she needed to rest. When world's was literally over a month away! Like how long can she rest? At any rate, looks like she got the rest she needed!

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I don’t know why but #ConcernTrolls absolutely sent me into a fit of laughter

Today’s Thread Mood Rating: https://www.instagram.com/p/BuxxgLnHxBG/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1kse3spcyrfc5

 

[flanker]

But on what do you base that everyone who is voicing a concern is not doing it genuinely?

I didn't say that, it's just a part of the line that taken separately has very different meaning. The rest was answered by @Finley, to whom I thank gratefully.

 

[rosy14]

With all due respect to Alena (Al-YO-na is more like it, actually) I'd love even more to see there Radionova or Pogorilaya, let alone a lot of other fab skaters who no longer compete among the tops. I'm speaking of those who don't participate simply because they can't find any open slots for continuing their career. I wish the world of FS was more like tennis where there are plenty of competitions with different budgets running every year and providing enough place for the athletes off the very top tier. They still have enough room to show up and please their fans, and can earn enough to proceed. That would make a pretty different and varied FS...

Mishin suggested something like that, two or three years ago.

 

[fabienne1996]

This isn't relevant at all to her chemical burns later in the season. The fact that she tripped presumably did not lead to any sort of serious injury that affected her performance at GPF.

It lead to a huge swollen ankle. There is a foto of that soemwhere

 

[Scott512]

Not for the squeamish and I don’t know how they ended up with these photos (it’s an invasion of privacy that they were leaked), but I can’t believe the Russian fed made Alina compete looking like this. It’s the kind of thing that can get badly infected with much more serious repercussions. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvldsl_H_g2/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1viy1pa4c33hm

Her legs are much stronger which takes some of the pain away from her knees. Figure skaters suffer with their feet ankles and knees and backs too. Alina so much tougher than she looks.

 

[Scott512]

It lead to a huge swollen ankle. There is a foto of that soemwhere

Alina stepped on cable wire in Vancouver at the Grand Prix final for the free skate and has hematoma on her right ankle the size of a hotdog and still skated pretty well and won the silver. That was just unbelievable guts from the Warrior Princess.

 

[Scott512]

Exactly. She's still a young girl, and she's ultimately at the mercy of her team and the federation to make decisions for her. Either her team or RusFed (or some combination of the two here) is really to blame for forcing her to skate on such an injury.

Alina's parents need to step up. Her father was an athlete and he coaches athletes. He needs to be more on top of things as does her mother and now that I Alina has won every major medal as a senior and Junior she can pick and choose what events she wants to skate in the future no matter what the Russian Federation or her coaches think.

Let's be honest here if you have a chronic knee injury and you're skating and preparing for three events in a short amount of time like the Grand Prix final Rusnats and Europeans you're going to put a tremendous amount of pressure on that bad knee. There is no reason for this to ever happen to Alina again if she has to miss Russian Nationals next year so be it. It was too much for Alina this season and yet she overcame it. Incredible.

 

[Vandevska]

I genuinely was not aware of all the hate for Alina until people started talking about it here. Same for this chemical burn.
But I think I can finally understand Flanker, and a few other people, because now I see what they're talking about. It really doesn't make sense for people to tell her to just "go retire and rest and make those money". Like, she's not even 17 yet, there must be even more potential there. And at the same time, they would complain about how there's only juniorish skating and how they want to see older skaters. Well, let's not tell people that they're done then maybe?

 

[Alexz]

Can someone give me the phone number of lousy TSL? So I can call them and tell them it is time for them "to retire and go have babies".

 

[flanker]

I genuinely was not aware of all the hate for Alina until people started talking about it here. Same for this chemical burn.
But I think I can finally understand Flanker, and a few other people, because now I see what they're talking about. It really doesn't make sense for people to tell her to just "go retire and rest and make those money". Like, she's not even 17 yet, there must be even more potential there. And at the same time, they would complain about how there's only juniorish skating and how they want to see older skaters. Well, let's not tell people that they're done then maybe?

I hope next time we will understand more each other. :thumbsup:

 

[SnowWhite]

Alina's parents need to step up. Her father was an athlete and he coaches athletes. He needs to be more on top of things as does her mother and now that I Alina has won every major medal as a senior and Junior she can pick and choose what events she wants to skate in the future no matter what the Russian Federation or her coaches think.

Let's be honest here if you have a chronic knee injury and you're skating and preparing for three events in a short amount of time like the Grand Prix final Rusnats and Europeans you're going to put a tremendous amount of pressure on that bad knee. There is no reason for this to ever happen to Alina again if she has to miss Russian Nationals next year so be it. It was too much for Alina this season and yet she overcame it. Incredible.

That would depend on how the season goes. With the 3A coming up, she may need to skate at Nationals to earn her place on the team, unlike this season when it was clear that she should go to Euros and Worlds.

Of course if she were to be injured I'm not staying she should go to Nationals, just that it's possible that by next year she may not be in a position to be put on the team without a good Nats result. The competition will be so fierce.

 

[starlord]

Hello, it's well-known Evgenia Medvedeva with her 11 years had been the 'veteran' of Olympic Reserve Sports School no. 37, later renamed "Sambo 70" (2008-2018).
With her departure, hasn't Anna Shcherbakova become the oldest student of the school now with her 11,5 year long career in "Khrustanyi"? :think:

Like there is not a single person aside from Eteri Tutberidze, coaching staff and administration personel in that facility with greater mileage than Anna.

 

[Mawwerg]

Hello, it's well-known Evgenia Medvedeva with her 11 years had been the 'veteran' of Olympic Reserve Sports School no. 37, later renamed "Sambo 70" (2008-2018).
With her departure, hasn't Anna Shcherbakova become the oldest student of the school now with her 11,5 year long career in "Khrustanyi"? :think:

Like there is not a single person aside from Eteri Tutberidze, coaching staff and administration personel in that facility with greater mileage than Anna.

Didn't Anna come to the rink before Evgenia and Eteri? And seems her first coach is also still working there.

 

[starlord]

Didn't Anna come to the rink before Evgenia and Eteri? And seems her first coach is also still working there.

You're right, she came at 3.5yo, which means 2007, before Evgenia!

 

[Scott512]

That would depend on how the season goes. With the 3A coming up, she may need to skate at Nationals to earn her place on the team, unlike this season when it was clear that she should go to Euros and Worlds.

Of course if she were to be injured I'm not staying she should go to Nationals, just that it's possible that by next year she may not be in a position to be put on the team without a good Nats result. The competition will be so fierce.

True.

I hope her knees hold up. Maybe 3A and quads arent in her future with her knees.

 

[Amei]

Alina's parents need to step up. Her father was an athlete and he coaches athletes. He needs to be more on top of things as does her mother and now that I Alina has won every major medal as a senior and Junior she can pick and choose what events she wants to skate in the future no matter what the Russian Federation or her coaches think.

Let's be honest here if you have a chronic knee injury and you're skating and preparing for three events in a short amount of time like the Grand Prix final Rusnats and Europeans you're going to put a tremendous amount of pressure on that bad knee. There is no reason for this to ever happen to Alina again if she has to miss Russian Nationals next year so be it. It was too much for Alina this season and yet she overcame it. Incredible.

Depends on what she wants - if she just wants to continue skating and more titles don't mean anything or aren't a goal, then yes she can pick and choose, but barring a significant implosion of Russian ladies, she's not gonna be able to skip something like Nationals and expect to be at Europeans/Worlds/Olympics. And who knows, with the ever increasing depth of Russian ladies the Fed might want to start taking into account the whole season where appearances at the GPF might make a difference to the Euro/Worlds team.

I will say that her parents and her coaches need to rein her in as far as what she does in exhibitions - if she's got bad knees or has tweaked her ankle like at the GPF then she doesn't need to be doing a bunch of jumps/combos at galas where she unnecessarily straining her body when it has injuries or has chronic issues. Especially since she's attempting to learn quads to keep pace with Trusova and Shcherbakova

 

[Scott512]

Depends on what she wants - if she just wants to continue skating and more titles don't mean anything or aren't a goal, then yes she can pick and choose, but barring a significant implosion of Russian ladies, she's not gonna be able to skip something like Nationals and expect to be at Europeans/Worlds/Olympics. And who knows, with the ever increasing depth of Russian ladies the Fed might want to start taking into account the whole season where appearances at the GPF might make a difference to the Euro/Worlds team.

Agreed.

But I stand by saying that unless her knees are really good she should not skate Grand Prix final followed by Russian Nationals followed by Europeans. It's too much for a figure skater with a chronic syndrome in her left knee. Alina should either miss Europeans or Nationals. And you could be right missing one of those may cost for a spot on the world's team. I don't want to see her done at18 like at Adelina.

 

[anonymoose_au]

she is guaranteed two because she is on the WS list and the SB list (that is, if her name is submitted).

The Russian Figure Skating Fed better submit Liza's name or I. Will. Riot. They already threw her under the bus this season, they owe her.